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by Kim Muntinga
Consumer advice centre wins: Disney+ conceals paid content
27.5.2025
Translation: machine translated
A legal dispute between the North Rhine-Westphalia consumer advice centre and streaming giant Disney+ has ended in victory for the consumer advocates. Disney+ has unlawfully withheld paid content from its users. What does this mean now?
In the summer of 2024, Disney+ increased the prices for its streaming subscriptions - nothing out of the ordinary really. However, the way the company implemented this adjustment angered many users. The North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Centre lodged a complaint - and was proved right in court. Now Disney+ has to adapt its practices.
What happened
Disney+ unceremoniously introduced three new subscription models and asked its existing customers to choose one of them within 30 days - or cancel their subscription altogether. During this cooling-off period, however, Disney+ blocked access to all content. The app could no longer be opened until one of the new offers had been actively selected, even for users who had already paid for the plan in advance. So anyone who wanted to continue watching at their leisure was left out in the cold. What at first glance appeared to be a friendly notice about new conditions turned out to be a coercive digital measure. The announced deadline was pure theory - Disney+ was not focussing on customer friendliness, but on pressure.
Disney+ must act
The NRW consumer advice centre intervened and sent the company a warning - with success. The court ordered Disney+ to definitively cease this business practice by 31 May 2025 at the latest. If the company continues to deny access to paying customers after this date, it must expect to pay a hefty contractual penalty.
From 1 June 2025, Disney+ will no longer be allowed to block access to paid content as long as a valid subscription is in place. Anyone who is still faced with closed digital doors can contact the NRW consumer advice centre by emailing service@verbraucherzentrale.nrw.
The only problem is that this decision comes too late for most of those affected. The price increases from summer 2024 have long been a fact. Disney+ does not have to pay retroactively, nor will customers receive any compensation. Those who were left empty-handed at the time will therefore lose out.
No active investigation in this direction is currently known in Switzerland, but the legal situation is similar. So if something similar happens to you as a Swiss customer of Disney+, you can contact the Foundation for Consumer Protection.
Header image: Shutterstock
I've been tinkering with digital networks ever since I found out how to activate both telephone channels on the ISDN card for greater bandwidth. As for the analogue variety, I've been doing that since I learned to talk. Though Winterthur is my adoptive home city, my heart still bleeds red and blue.
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