Disney is facing calls to refund consumers across Europe up to €63 million after it removed some features of its premium subscription plan in response to a court ruling.
Campaign group Euroconsumers, along with Italy’s Altroconsumo, Belgium’s Testachats and Deco Proteste in Portugal, sent formal notice to the US entertainment giant requesting it repay subscribers to its premium streaming plan at least €5 a month.
The group, which represents seven million consumers, said subscribers paid for features they were not getting, such as 4K, HDR10 and Dolby Vision, which improve picture quality and viewing experience. Que Choisir in France has also issued a similar notice.
Disney+ was forced to temporarily disable 4K UHD, HDR10 and Dolby Vision for users in certain European countries as a result of a patent dispute over video compression technology.
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The technologies offer different benefits to consumers: 4K UHD brings better resolution and greater detail in video; HDR improves the range between the brightest and darkest parts of the images; and Dolby Vision adjusts brightness and colour and supports higher colour depth.
The move left customers signed up to Disney+’s premium subscription tier in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Sweden with lower-quality video than they were paying for.
The downgrade was only implemented on the streaming service, but viewers who downloaded content to watch offline were unaffected.
The consumer groups want Disney to reduce the price of its premium service immediately and repay subscribers at least €5 a month for loss of parts of the service.
If Disney agrees to the refund, it could cost the broadcaster up €63 million per month, with the cost of meeting the demand in Italy, Belgium and Portugal alone at €12 million.
The company has since begun reintroducing 4K in those countries, using an alternative technology unaffected by the patent ruling, but only for certain devices.
HDR and Dolby Vision remain largely unavailable to customers. Customers affected could downgrade their plans to the standard tier or apply for a part-refund.
Marco Scialdone from Euroconsumers said the measures did not adequately address the concerns raised.
“Our position is clear: consumers should not be required to pay the full premium price for a service that no longer provides all the advertised premium features. Any compensation should be proportionate to the actual degradation and should not depend on consumers having to pursue individual claims.”
The notice was sent on October 6th, with Disney given 14 days from receipt of the complaint to respond.
If Disney fails to take satisfactory action then Euroconsumers said it would file complaints with the European Union’s Consumer Protection Cooperation Network and pursue the company for fines of up to 4 per cent of its turnover in the affected countries.
“Based on our experience with comparable cases, we would reasonably expect to receive a response by mid-November,” Scialdone said.
“While it is difficult to predict how long a negotiated or regulatory resolution might take, we are determined to ensure that consumers’ rights are effectively protected and that any remedy reflects both the duration and the extent of the service degradation.”
Disney has almost 12.6 million subscribers paying for ad-free plans across the 11 affected EU countries.
The company, which launched the streaming service in 2019 before coming to Ireland in 2020, has steadily increased prices over the past few years, introducing an ad-supported tier and deals with Sky.
