A company offers online services relating to broadcasting fees – and charges 29.99 euros for this. Changes to the official fee service are free of charge. Consumer advocates have therefore filed a lawsuit.
The Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (vzbv) has filed an injunction against the company SSS-Software Special Service. It operates the website service-rundfunkbeitrag.de and charges 29.99 euros for registration, re-registration or de-registration with the contribution service for public broadcasting – although this is not possible with the official provider is free.
It is not clear on the website that the service is subject to a fee, the Federal Consumer Center Association (vzbv). Consumers could therefore declare the cancellation and get their money back.
Money already paid should be reclaimed
According to estimates by the vzbv, more than 90,000 people have fallen for the website so far. Until recently, the service-rundfunkbeitrag.de page was shown at the top of Google searches for “register broadcasting fee”. There are forms there that consumers can use to notify the ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio contribution service of a change in their residential address or bank details.
“It is not clear enough that the provider is charging 29.99 euros for this,” explained Sebastian Reiling, a consultant in the vzbv class action lawsuit team. “Anyone who has already paid money should demand it back.” A declaration of cancellation is necessary. The consumer center has provided a sample letter for this on its website. The company has announced that it will accept declarations of cancellation for contracts concluded up to June 27th.
Broadcasting fee – what is it?
Since 2013, the broadcasting fee has replaced the broadcasting fee, which was also called the “GEZ fee”. Since then, every household and every business premises has paid the fee for the public broadcasters, regardless of whether they have a receiver. The basic idea behind the reform was that in the age of smartphones, the possession of a “broadcasting receiver” can no longer be the deciding factor for the fee obligation.
For companies, the contribution is calculated based on the number of business premises, employees and vehicles. Exemption from the contribution obligation for social reasons is possible.
The broadcasting fee is collected by the Contribution Service, which distributes the revenue to ARD, ZDF and Germany Radio In 2023, the Contribution Service collected a total of around 9.02 billion euros – an increase of 5.3 percent compared to the previous year. ARD, ZDF and Germany Radio received 8.85 billion euros. The state media authorities, which are responsible for supervising private broadcasting, received 170 million euros.
In 2018, the Federal Constitutional Court confirmed in a fundamental ruling that the broadcasting fee is legal.
Company did not respond to warning
In the opinion of the vzbv, the non-transparent presentation of costs on the website must be prohibited. The vzbv and the Saxony Consumer Advice Center had therefore already issued a warning to the company behind the website. However, SSS-Software Special Service had not provided a sufficient cease-and-desist declaration, so the vzbv has now filed a lawsuit with the Koblenz Higher Regional Court.
In addition, consumer advocates are considering filing a class action lawsuit if the announced repayments are not made. If the class action lawsuit is successful, participating consumers will receive payment directly.
The service-rundfunkbeitrag website is still accessible. There, under the “Further information” section, i.e. in the small print, there is a section with an “important note” explaining that changes, registrations and notifications relating to the broadcasting fee can also be handled “directly and free of charge” via the broadcasting fee service. The paid services offered by the website are not required for this.