Ryan 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.
The class-action effort raises some challenging questions for tech consumers and manufacturers, alike. Should companies prioritize updates that keep their devices feeling fresh and modern — even if that impacts functionality? Or should every effort be made to maintain original functionality, even if that leads to a rougher, more bare-bones user experience?
There probably aren’t any easy answers there, and maybe the best thing that companies can do is to clearly communicate their support strategies to shoppers so everybody involved knows what to expect — and can make purchasing decisions accordingly.
For now, we’ll just be curious to see what becomes of this particular lawsuit, and learn if any old Fire TV Stick users might be due a little compensation.
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