About a year old news, but same thing in Germany
Rough Translation:
Good news for Netflix customers: The Cologne Regional Court ruled on May 15, 2025, that Netflix’s price increases in 2017, 2019, and 2021 were unlawful (Case No. 6 S 114/23). The streaming service had ultimately simply raised its prices unilaterally – without a valid contractual basis.
Although customers had to agree to the higher prices in their account (“Agree to price increase”), the court ruled that this was not a genuine choice. Due to the wording surrounding the agreement button, users saw no way to keep the old price – therefore, it was not a case of voluntary consent.
Consequently, the crucial question again was whether Netflix had the right to unilaterally increase prices for existing customers. This required a valid price change clause in Netflix’s terms and conditions. In this respect, the Cologne Regional Court followed the decisions already issued by the Berlin Higher Regional Court and deemed the price change clauses in Netflix’s terms and conditions to be unreasonably disadvantageous and therefore invalid.
There is a statutory period of limitation of 3 years as per German law though, so you can only reclaim the higher paid costs for 2022-2025.
Does this mean Netflix didnt have anything in their T&C that they could raise prices, so they couldn’t raise prices?
Edit: Oh I re-read this a few times and they did have a clause. I don’t understand this then. It’s stupid to say a company can’t raise prices, was the issue that they needed to give something like 3, 6, 9, 12 months notice instead of an immediate put up or get out situation?
customer protection is taken seriously in germany (or any country whrere laws protect customers from companies rather than the other way around for that matter). you can’t for example just send an email to your customers saying “we’ve made some changes to our terms and conditions” without making it possible for the customers to say “ok, I’m out”. if there is no such option the customers may rightfully argue that this is simply not the product they purchased and the conpany is breaking their end of the deal.
Not sure if this is true for all EU now, but they can’t raise prices on their own, period.
They have to inform you and unless you agree all they’re allowed to do is cancel your service once the new pricing is in effect.
And illegal/abusive clauses in the T&C are null and void.
But they did inform?
I’m looking into this a bit further, and it seems to be so idiotic if i understand this right… because their T&C didn’t say they may raise prices due to inflation, or because of increased production costs, or adding new features, it was voided. They just said they could increase prices, but a reason in the T&C was required.
Edit: And they’ve now since added a reason in the T&C because of this.
Edit2: Also because there was no clear way to cancel on the spot when they saw the prompt? This part seems more reasonable.
Edit2 is the more correct one.
As per German law, a contract or a renewal of a contract requires both parties to consent.
Since Netflix only offered a “Yes I accept” button and no “I decline, please cancel my subscription” one, the Price Hike is illegal and thus void.
Do you think they would have let the no reason in the T&C pass (edit with a warning) had they offered the i decline cancel button?
Sanitized link without the UTM parameter:
Yeah … that’s never going to happen.
Wdym? Court ordered them to pay.
What are the consequences of not paying the court ordered amounts?
My educated-but-not-italian-lawyer guess is: growing fines, seizure of bank accounts and assets and eventual ban on conducting business.
And they’re appealing. And what’s the court gonna do, fine them less than they would have to pay out?
Appealing doesn’t get them out of paying.
It says that the price hikes after 2025 are legal. So they will pay the fine if they must, but they will just hike it again to make the money back.
I’m not an Italian lawyer, but I’m pretty sure appeals can be rejected. And hopefully this one will be.
Fines can also be increased on appeal.
Hope for the best, expect the worst.
Start an example?
Considering consumer laws are pretty good in Europe and jurisprudence tends to set example in the euro-space, it may cause other countries to do the exact same thing.
The company may appeal. It may even win. But the bad publicity hurts. And if they lose, it gets even worse, as it will have to pay what it is being demanded.
Or not pay and get fines on top of that.
A small victory for civilisation against the Uruk.
Haha get owned Netflix
