From 1 July 2024, many tenants in Germany will be able to have their own television stay black The reason for this is a change in the law. We will tell you if you are also affected and what you should do as soon as possible so as not to miss your favorite television shows.
Additional cost privileges for cable TV eliminated as of today
Specifically, the so-called “incidental cost privilege” is to be abolished. This “affects tenants whose rental contract contains agreements on telecommunications connections and services (TV, Internet, telephone)”, as reported by the Federal Network Agency.
From 1 July 2024, landlords will no longer be able to charge the monthly fee for the TV or broadband connection agreed in the rental contract as an additional cost. Property owners had previously often concluded collective agreements (multi-user agreements) with cable network operators. Billing is done through collective collection, explains the consumer service centre.
This means that individual tenants or apartment owners pay the costs of cable connection to the property management company through their utility bill. This then sends the money to the cable network operators. But that's finally over.
Who is affected by the new law and what can tenants do?
This means: If you live in a rented apartment and watch cable TV, you may no longer have a signal from today. Users of satellite dishes, antenna TV or streaming TV are not affected. If you want to continue watching cable TV, you will now have to sign a contract yourself.
But for some tenants the innovation could be more than welcome. The privilege of extra costs was abolished, among other things, because it has long been considered unmodern, according to the Consumer Care Centre: “Television is now completely digital and there are also new distribution channels, such as Internet television.”
But until now tenants could not switch to alternative transmission methods because the cable connection still had to be paid for through the utility bill. If in doubt, you had to pay twice for television reception. This is now changing with the abolition of the additional costs privilege.
Source: Federal Network Agency, consumer advice centre.
By Véronique Fritsche