For decades, many tenants have automatically paid for a cable connection as part of their operating costs. That will end in three years. Competition advocates are now asking: Was this even legal?
From mid-2024 on, landlords will no longer be allowed to pass on cable fees to their tenants – and competition protectors believe that this already violates applicable law.
In a test case, the competition center brought the question to the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), on Thursday the trial was in Karlsruhe. The verdict will be announced in the next few months, a date has not yet been set. (Az. I ZR 106/20)
The competition protectors are bothered by the fact that many tenants have no chance to terminate their connection. As long as they live in the apartment, they have to pay the fees as part of their ancillary costs – even if they may not use the connection at all or do not want it. As a result, providers of alternative transmission routes such as streaming services are at a disadvantage.
The competition center relies on a paragraph in the Telecommunications Act, according to which a contract “between a consumer and a provider of publicly available telecommunications services” may have a maximum term of 24 months. It must also be possible to conclude a contract for a maximum of twelve months. The judges, however, expressed certain doubts as to whether this provision could be applied to a real estate company with rental apartments. The lawsuit had not been successful in the lower courts.
Either way, the judgment will only matter temporarily. Because politics has already sealed the end of the so-called additional cost privilege. The law will come into force on December 1, 2021, with a transition period until the end of June 2024. After that, all tenants will have the freedom of choice, for which the competition headquarters in Karlsruhe is fighting.
For the defendant housing provider Vivawest from Gelsenkirchen, who rents more than 120,000 apartments, the imminent abolition is proof that the opposite has been true so far. “From our point of view, this means that there is a clear legislative assessment that the ability to pay can still be maintained until then,” said the company’s lawyer after the negotiation.
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
