Russia's Netflix Users Aren't Happy They've Lost Service

About 1 million of Netflix's 220 million subscribers worldwide are in Russia, and right now, they're pretty miffed. After Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine, the streaming service blocked access in his nation and halted production of Russian-made movies and shows, and now customers there have launched a $730,000 class-action complaint in protest, reports the Guardian. "The reason for the lawsuit was a violation of Russian users' rights due to Netflix's unilateral refusal to provide services in Russia," reads the complaint filed by the Chernyshov, Lukoyanov & Partners law firm in a Moscow district court, per the RIA news agency.

Deadline and Variety report that Netflix's service in Russia, for which customers pay between $7.30 and $9.75 per month, has operated as a local-language service for only about a year, though it launched there in English in 2016. In February, trouble started brewing when the platform declined to air 20 Russian free-to-air propaganda channels, which Russian law mandates. In addition to the $730,000 compensatory damages being sought by the complaint, plaintiffs are also hoping to have a fine lodged against Netflix for half of whatever the court awards. So far, about 20 individuals have signed on to the class action, with at least 100 others set to join, per RIA. (More Netflix stories.)