Sep 28, 2026
Funimation's shutdown wiped away paid digital copies with no refund and no replacement.
Funimation's shutdown wiped away paid digital copies with no refund and no replacement.
Spotify sold the Car Thing, then remotely bricked it and turned it into e-waste.
Spotify released the Car Thing in 2022 but ended production months later due to poor sales, then cut the price from $89.99 to $29.99 to clear remaining inventory. On May 23, 2024, Spotify announced the device would stop working entirely after December 9, 2024, sparking backlash and a class-action lawsuit in New York. The lawsuit was dropped after Spotify began issuing refunds to buyers with proof of purchase. When Spotify shut down the Car Thing's API in December, every unit lost the ability to work with the Spotify app, and only owners who repurposed the hardware with their own software could keep using it.
Published Oct 05, 2026
What happened
Spotify released the Car Thing in 2022, but abruptly stopped production months later due to poor sales. To clear out remaining inventory, they slashed prices from $89.99 to $29.99, heavily exposing a final wave of bargain-seeking consumers to its discontinuation.
Spotify officially announced on May 23, 2024, that the device would be completely discontinued and bricked by the end of the year. This announcement sparked intense public backlash from the people who had bought Car Things.
On May 28, 2024, a U.S. class-action lawsuit was filed in New York accusing Spotify of misleading consumers by selling a soon-to-be obsolete product without compensation. The lawsuit was only dropped in July 2024 after Spotify gave in and began issuing official refunds to customers with proof of purchase.
The product officially died on December 9, 2024, when Spotify shut down the server API and remotely killed every active unit at once. Lacking offline functionality and dependent on continuous smartphone tethering, the Car Thing instantly became obsolete.
While open source projects such as Desk Thing have emerged to allow owners to repurpose their hardware, Sec. 1201 of the DMCA could allow Spotify to sue such projects out of existence.
The Car Thing is a small device, but it is a perfect example of a much bigger problem. If manufacturers get to dictate how long you get to use your device or what software you run on it, you don't own it.
SOURCES:
Consumer Rights Wiki, "Spotify Car Thing" (primary article): https://consumerrights.wiki/w/Spotify_Car_Thing
Spotify Newsroom, "5 Things to Know about Spotify's Latest Test" (May 17, 2019), the data-collection admission: https://newsroom.spotify.com/2019-05-17/5-things-to-know-about-spotifys-latest-test/
Spotify Support, "Car Thing discontinued," the official shutdown notice and December 9, 2024 kill date: [Archived link] https://support.spotify.com/us/article/car-thing-discontinued/
Digital Music News, "Spotify's Sordid Car Thing History: A Timeline" (June 2, 2024): https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2024/06/02/how-long-did-spotify-car-thing-last-timeline/
TechCrunch, "Spotify Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over 'Car Thing' Deactivation" (May 30, 2024): https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/30/spotify-begins-offering-car-thing-refunds-as-it-faces-lawsuit-over-bricking-the-streaming-device/
CNET, "How to Get a Refund if You Bought Spotify's Failed Car Thing Device" (May 31, 2024): https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/heres-how-to-get-a-refund-if-you-bought-spotifys-failed-car-thing-device/
Digital Music News, "Car Thing Class Action Lawsuit Voluntarily Dismissed After Spotify Begins Issuing Refunds" (July 10, 2024): https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2024/07/10/spotify-car-thing-lawsuit-dismissed/
ODS Security Research, "Spotify Car Thing – Root and Custom OS toolkit," the community jailbreak: https://oddsolutions.github.io/Spotify-Car-Thing-Root/
Liliputing, “DeskThing turns Spotify’s discontinued Car Thing into a PC controller and display” (November 3, 2024): https://liliputing.com/deskthing-turns-spotifys-discontinued-car-thing-into-a-pc-controller-and-display/
FULU's takeaway
Spotify kept selling Car Things at a discount after it stopped making them, announced it would shut them all off two years later, and only offered refunds once backlash and a lawsuit arose. If manufacturers control how long your device works and what software it runs, you don't own it.
Why this is a law problem
Most of these entries involve a digital lock guarding copyrighted software, and a lock like that sits under Section 1201 of the DMCA, 17 U.S.C. 1201. Subsection 1201(a)(1) makes it unlawful to bypass a lock that controls access to a copyrighted work, even when no copyright is infringed. Subsections 1201(a)(2) and 1201(b)(1) separately ban making or distributing the tools that do the bypassing.
Every three years the Librarian of Congress can exempt narrow classes of uses from the first ban. An exemption expires after three years and has to be re-argued, and the rulemaking has no authority over the tool bans, so a granted exemption still leaves no lawful supplier for the means to use it. FULU exists to reform or revoke this statute.
If you want this law changed, donations fund the work. FULU is a 501(c)(4). Donations to FULU are not tax-deductible, which is the tradeoff for being able to lobby without a limit.
Nothing on these pages says any company named here violated Section 1201. FULU is not a law firm, and this is not legal advice.
The original post
The slides below are the originals as posted. Where a slide and the text on this page disagree, go by the text; the text is the corrected, sourced record. Some slides also print an old wiki address that no longer works. The links on this page are current.
Originally published as an Instagram carousel on Oct 05, 2026: See Instagram post.
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