Attention: Netflix has increased its prices - Update

Luca Fontana

18.4.2024

Translation: machine translated

Netflix has quietly increased its prices in Switzerland. However, anyone who does not want to pay the new prices for their existing plan has 30 days to cancel before the change comes into force.

Update: 19 April, 10:30 am:

As the Netflix spokesperson has just confirmed to me, the price for existing customers will not be secretly adjusted with the next billing period. The adjustment will only be made after the customer has been informed by email 30 days before the billing period in which the change would take effect.

The email will be sent individually over the next few days, depending on the start of the next billing period from which the change comes into effect. The version presented by moneyland.ch that the change will come into effect directly with the next billing period - regardless of any prior information - is a misunderstanding between Netflix and moneyland.ch, the spokesperson said.

Here is the original news from 18 April:

After Disney and Sky have increased their prices in Switzerland in recent weeks and months, Netflix has now followed suit. However, the new Netflix prices have been in place since 12 April - even for existing customers. This was reported by the independent comparison service moneyland.ch.

In concrete terms:

If you look in the account settings under "Change plan", you will still see the old price for the current plan, but you will already see the new price for the two alternatives. As moneyland.ch reports, existing subscribers will also pay the higher price of the current plan with the next billing period. Netflix confirmed this on request.

No communication is also a communication strategy

The fact that the price increase would come as no surprise, even though Switzerland was already the most expensive Netflix country in the world. After all, the sparrows had been whistling from the rooftops for months that a Swiss price increase was only a matter of time.

Much more surprising - and more annoying for Swiss households - is that the Californian streaming giant refrained from informing its customers in advance about the contract change. Strictly speaking, Netflix is in breach of its own terms of use. Specifically against paragraph 3.5, "Changes to the price and subscription plan".

In this clause, Netflix warns that prices may change, but at the same time assures customers that they will be warned at least one month before the price increase comes into effect:

The customer-friendly behaviour chosen instead doesn't change much; anyone who wants to cancel their plan under the current circumstances can still do so at the end of the current billing period. However, anyone who does not check their credit card statements carefully may end up paying the new price for many months without realising it and being able to reclaim the difference to the original price.

Because - and this is also stated in the terms of use - payments already made are non-refundable.

Luca Fontana

Senior Editor

Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.ch

I'm an outdoorsy guy and enjoy sports that push me to the limit – now that’s what I call comfort zone! But I'm also about curling up in an armchair with books about ugly intrigue and sinister kingkillers. Being an avid cinema-goer, I’ve been known to rave about film scores for hours on end. I’ve always wanted to say: «I am Groot.» more

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