June 7, 2024, 8:17 am | Read time: 6 minutes
Some time ago, Netflix announced price increases not only for new customers but also for existing ones. The streaming service needs user consent for this–and they are pursuing it vigorously.
There are also free streaming services available online. However, if you want to watch the latest and especially certain exclusive movies and series, you can’t avoid subscribing to a major provider. And for this, you will have to pay more over time than initially expected, as the recent price increases at Netflix show. The provider is also resorting to rather questionable methods for this.
Immediate Consent to Netflix Price Increase
The new price increases for Netflix were initially supposed to apply only to new customers. However, shortly thereafter and unsurprisingly, the company announced that they would also affect existing customers. For them, the question now arises whether the subscription is still worth it. Our TECHBOOK editorial director, Rita Deutschbein, finds it really hard to still like Netflix.
To ensure everything is above board, Netflix must officially obtain consent for the price increase from already active users. In practice, however, this proves to be extremely inflexible: Currently, it affects users of the basic subscription, among others. As we also found out some time ago with a premium subscription, the corresponding query appears when using the platform. In it, we were supposed to agree to the Netflix price increase.
However, the option to make the decision at a later time was missing. This means: Netflix is no longer usable at that moment without prior consent. The query cannot be dismissed, and closing and reopening Netflix does not solve the problem. Once confronted with it, the decision must ideally be made immediately.
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Immediate Cancellation Upon Rejection
It doesn’t matter if the new price officially takes effect later. You are not given more time to think it over. As myHOMEBOOK editorial director Felix Mildner found with his standard subscription, he was only left with the choice between immediate consent or cancellation. When he declined, he promptly received the cancellation confirmation via email and could no longer log in.
The message informed him that he could continue watching until the end of the current month. However, this no longer worked for our colleague.
Logging back into Netflix was then only possible under the new conditions, which was equivalent to agreeing to the new prices. This was confirmed to him in another message.
What Netflix Says About the Price Increase
In response to a query from TECHBOOK, Netflix emphasizes that the streaming service informs its customers 30 days before the new prices take effect via email. They also point this out multiple times during use–the timing can vary from user to user.
If you reject the new fees before the end of the already paid month, you can “of course” continue to use Netflix as usual for the remaining month. However, this last point proved to be simply false according to our own experience. Netflix did not address this.
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How a Lawyer Assesses Netflix’s Approach
Whether this practice is even legal and whether Netflix can withhold its offer until the user has made a decision, TECHBOOK wanted to know from attorney Christian Solmecke. In his assessment, the described Netflix approach is “immoral, and the resulting new, more expensive contract is void.” The expert also said: “The fact that you have no option to postpone your decision if you want to continue using Netflix puts consumers under undue pressure.”
That our colleague Felix could only choose between consent and cancellation also constitutes a “wrongful threat,” with which the new contract could be contested in court. This could even be considered more than immorality. “In both cases (immorality and contestation), the old contract continues under the old conditions until Netflix cancels it,” Solmecke said.
That in the mentioned case, access was no longer possible upon rejection of the price increase constitutes a breach of contract. As Netflix itself actually promises, “the colleague still has the right to access the service and, for the period in which he could not use the service, the right to compensation.”
Netflix Compelled to Obtain Consent
We also asked the Federation of German Consumer Organizations for an assessment from the consumer protection perspective, but have not yet received a response. However, the consumer center already has its own legal history with Netflix. After all, they were the ones who, through a successful lawsuit (which also simultaneously targeted Spotify), brought Netflix to this point.
The streaming service originally wanted to reserve the right to change prices without prior user consent with a clause in the terms and conditions. However, the Berlin Court of Appeal ruled at the end of 2023 that this is not permissible.