GoKawiilRyan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR A class action lawsuit accuses Amazon of effectively bricking first- and second-generation Fire TV Stick streaming hardware.
The plaintiff alleges that Amazon never warned that functionality would be reduced before support was cut off.
Instead of offering compensation to owners, Amazon reportedly encouraged them to upgrade to new hardware.
Amazon may still be an untouchable giant when it comes to online retail, but the company’s consumer tech efforts have found themselves receiving quite a bit of negative attention lately. Luna game streaming is killing off one of its biggest features, older Kindles are being shut off from Amazon’s servers, and the latest Fire TV hardware is designed to block your attempts to sideload software. But shoppers are also starting to push back, and one group of Fire TV users is heading to court in an effort to hold Amazon accountable.
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Instead of the latest Fire TV Stick, today we’re turning our attention to some of Amazon’s oldest. A new class action lawsuit headed up by plaintiff Bill Merewhuader seeks compensation for Amazon failing to keep first- and second-generation Fire TV Sticks usable (via Top Class Actions).
While that hardware is a decade old at this point, the suit alleges that Amazon stopped supporting it prematurely, and compounding performance issues over the years effectively served to “brick” the devices, rendering them incapable of continued operation — and forcing users to upgrade to newer models.
The California-based suit seeks justice from the state’s consumer protection laws, while also alleging breach of contract.
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