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Australia’s consumer watchdog has sued Amazon, claiming the tech giant introduced adverts in Prime Video using allegedly unfair contract terms.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said Amazon had broken consumer protection law by making the unfair contracts with over a million annual subscribers between November 2023 and August 2025.

“Consumers who wanted to avoid ads were left with no choice but to pay more to maintain the service they’d initially signed up for”, ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.

Amazon has been approached for comment.

For more than a decade, Prime Video was a commercial-free streaming offering that was included as part of Amazon’s popular Prime subscription, which is sold as an upgrade on its core delivery service.

Prime became available in Australia in 2018. It started to roll out advertising in the service globally in early 2024.

When Amazon began that year to include ads within Prime Video, it told subscribers in Australia they would need to pay an additional fee each month in order to keep the service free of ads, driving the monthly price up to 12.99 Australian dollars.

At that point, the ACCC said over 850,000 people in Australia had already paid for a year’s worth of Prime service.

“Those subscribers were provided with a degraded, ad-supported Prime Video service for the balance of their prepaid term unless they paid for the ad-free option”, the ACCC added in a filing, external.

The ACCC said Amazon did this by relying on five unfair terms in contracts with over a million customers signed between 1 November 2023 and 18 August 2025.

“Those contracts included five terms permitting [Amazon Australia] to unilaterally make materially adverse changes to its services (including, but not limited to, Prime Video) and the terms governing those services, without any contractual entitlement for subscribers to receive refunds or other meaningful redress,” the ACCC said.

Amazon’s treatment of its users has come under government scrutiny before.

In the US, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in recent years has taken legal action against Amazon on claims that the company would sign people up for Prime without their consent, external, and then make it difficult for people to cancel a subscription.

The company on Tuesday also agreed to pay an FTC fine, external to resolve claims that it created a “Kafkaesque ordeal” for people who were victims of online shopping fraud.

In the UK, the government has previously investigated Amazon’s method of listing goods for sale, and the proliferation of fake reviews of products.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned gasoline retailers that the Trump administration is “watching” pump prices and expects them to pass lower oil costs on to Americans.

Speaking on “Fox & Friends,” Bessent’s comments came a day after President Donald Trump urged gas stations to lower prices to around $2.50 per gallon following a decline in crude oil prices.

“I would encourage them to be good actors, especially in the 250th anniversary, because we’re watching,” Bessent said Tuesday. 

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent arrived before testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee in the Longworth House Office Building on June 4, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Gas prices rose during the conflict between Israel and Iran, though prices have eased since the onset of the fighting. The AAA national average for regular gas was $3.860 per gallon as of June 29, down from $4.391 a month earlier but still higher than the year-earlier average of $3.187.

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Higher fuel costs have squeezed consumers and businesses alike, with some California small business owners saying they’re “working for peanuts” just to keep their doors open. But Bessent said that as crude oil prices decline, he’ll be watching gasoline retailers to ensure savings are passed on to consumers.

“We’ve got a chart of how quickly the prices went up and how they followed crude, and we’re going to hold them accountable on the other side,” he said, calling Trump’s Truth Social post on the issue “powerful.”

The president wrote on Truth Social earlier this week, “Gasoline Retailers must get their Prices down, IMMEDIATELY!” and added that “They’re too high considering that Oil is now at $68 a Barrel, and heading south.”

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“The Retailers must quickly react to this statement, and do what they know is right — DROP YOUR PRICE FOR OUR GREAT AMERICAN PEOPLE!” he continued. “There will be no gauging, which is totally illegal. If Retailers don’t do this, big problems lie ahead!”

Bessent said stations often benefit when oil prices spike and argued it is now time to provide relief for the public. “They’re making an extra margin there, and they probably had record profits on gasoline retailing. Now it’s time to do something for the American people,” he said. 

Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this report. 

Samsung has confirmed that its long-running Messages app will be discontinued in July 2026, ending a texting platform that has shipped on Galaxy devices since 2009 and forcing millions of remaining users to migrate to Google Messages before the cutoff arrives. Here’s what Android owners need to understand about the shutdown and how to prepare.

1. The shutdown is scheduled for July 2026, with some users reporting a specific date. Samsung’s official End of Service notice, posted on its U.S. support website, states plainly that “the Samsung Messages application will be discontinued in July 2026,” directing users to “upgrade to Google Messages as your default messaging app today to maintain a consistent messaging experience on Android.” While Samsung’s public messaging has stuck to the broader monthlong window, at least one specific date has surfaced through device notifications sent directly to users. A screenshot obtained by NBC Chicago showed one notice reading, “Samsung Messages is being discontinued on July 6 2026.” Samsung has advised users to check the Samsung Messages app itself for the exact shutdown date applicable to their device, suggesting the rollout may be phased or staggered rather than occurring all at once.

2. Once the cutoff hits, the app won’t disappear, but it will stop functioning as a texting tool. According to the fine print in Samsung’s notice, “sending messages via Samsung Messages on your phone will no longer be possible, except for emergency service numbers or emergency contacts defined in your device.” The shutdown also extends to a feature some users have come to rely on for cross-device texting: Samsung’s Message Continuity service, known as “Call & Text on Other Devices,” which allows people to send texts from a paired tablet or PC, will also be disrupted once Samsung Messages is formally discontinued.

3. The change is currently limited to the U.S. market, and not every device is affected equally. Samsung’s notice specifies that the discontinuation applies to the U.S. market only, with no confirmed shutdown date announced for other regions at this time. Within the U.S., devices running Android 11 or lower are explicitly excluded from this particular end-of-service deadline and will continue functioning as before. However, availability of the app itself has already been shrinking ahead of the formal cutoff: owners of the Galaxy S26 and newer devices cannot download Samsung Messages from the Galaxy Store at all, and once the app is officially discontinued in July, no other devices will be able to download it from the Galaxy Store either. On devices released before 2022, switching messaging apps may temporarily disrupt ongoing RCS conversations, though Samsung says those conversations can resume once both parties have switched to Google Messages, with standard MMS and SMS messaging remaining available throughout that transition period.

4. The shift is part of a broader, years-long move toward Google Messages and RCS standardization, not a sudden decision. Samsung stopped making its own Messages app the default texting platform on Galaxy phones back in 2021 and stopped pre-installing it alongside Google Messages starting in 2024. The July 2026 shutdown formalizes a shift the company had already been making in practice for years. Industry observers have tied the change closely to Google’s broader push for Rich Communication Services, or RCS, a messaging standard often described as Android’s answer to Apple’s iMessage. Google Messages offers RCS features including read receipts, real-time typing indicators, higher-quality photo and video sharing, end-to-end encryption in supported chats, and integration with Gemini-powered AI tools such as suggested replies and an experimental image-generation feature. Samsung has framed the consolidation around streamlining the texting experience, stating in its announcement that the goal is to “maintain a consistent messaging experience on Android.” The company has also emphasized that the discontinuation is limited specifically to messaging and does not affect other core Galaxy apps or services.

5. Scammers are already exploiting confusion around the transition, so verify any notice independently. As word of the shutdown has spread, fraudulent text messages designed to mimic Samsung’s official notifications have begun circulating, targeting confused Galaxy phone owners. One reader from Running Springs, California, who goes by Gilberto, described receiving a suspicious text warning him that Samsung Messages would end on a specific date and urging him to switch apps immediately. While the underlying shift to Google Messages is genuine, security experts have cautioned that unsolicited texts urging immediate action, particularly those containing links, should be treated skeptically. The safest approach is to ignore unexpected links entirely and instead verify any notice directly through a device’s own settings or by checking the Samsung Messages app, rather than clicking through a text message claiming to be from Samsung.

For most users, the actual process of switching should be straightforward when it comes to standard text messages. Google Messages draws from a device’s standard SMS and MMS database, meaning older text conversations typically carry over automatically without requiring any manual export. Users can switch by opening or installing Google Messages, then selecting the option to set it as their default SMS app. Samsung has said many Galaxy phones will display in-app notifications within Samsung Messages guiding users through that transition before the cutoff arrives. The shutdown also extends to Tizen OS smartwatches, where Samsung Messages is similarly being discontinued, though those devices will retain basic read and send capability even as full conversation history access is lost; Galaxy Watch models running WearOS are handled differently and will retain full conversation continuity through Google Messages across phone, tablet and watch.

With the July deadline approaching, Samsung is encouraging all remaining Samsung Messages users, particularly those on devices still capable of running the app, to complete the switch to Google Messages well ahead of the cutoff date rather than waiting until service is formally discontinued and texting capability becomes limited to emergency contacts only.