BERN. The Federal Council wants to rein in unilateral price rises by streaming services and other digital subscriptions. On Thursday it accepted, without comment, a parliamentary motion that would allow increases only on transparent, pre-agreed criteria and would give customers a free way out when the price jumps.
The motion comes from Alex Farinelli, a Ticino Liberal in the National Council, and takes aim at the rolling, automatically renewing subscriptions that now bundle much of household entertainment and software. Providers repeatedly raise prices citing general terms and conditions that leave them wide latitude, Farinelli argues. “A market economy only works if contractual rules are predictable, understandable and applied in good faith.”
Under the proposal, a unilateral price rise would be permissible only where it rests on objective, transparent criteria communicated in the contract beforehand. General clauses that allow increases which cannot be determined or justified in advance would be treated as abusive and void.
Two further protections attach. Where a provider imposes a substantial unilateral price change, the customer would gain a simple, effective and free right of cancellation. And providers would be obliged to inform users clearly of any contractual change, the reasons for it, and the means available to object to it.
Farinelli points to Italy and Germany, which have both moved on the question, as evidence that Switzerland is late rather than early. The Federal Council agreed with every element of the motion and offered no reasons in its published response, a silence veterans of Bern read as consent without enthusiasm.
The political context does the heavy lifting. With health premiums, rents and rail fares all rising into the autumn, the household subscription pile is an obvious next target, and streaming platforms, Netflix the unspoken first among them, offer the rare opponent no voter will defend. The platforms themselves have so far said nothing publicly.
Switzerland already regulates the streamers’ money in one direction: since 2024 the revised Film Act, the so-called Lex Netflix, obliges them to invest 4 per cent of their Swiss revenue in domestic production, a duty worth CHF 30.1 million for 2024. The Farinelli motion addresses the other direction, what the platforms charge.
The motion now goes to the National Council. If it passes there and in the Council of States, the drafting work begins, most likely through the unfair competition and consumer protection law. The platforms’ lobbyists, quiet this week, tend to find their voice in exactly that phase.
For subscribers, nothing changes this year. But the direction of travel in Bern is visible: after insurance executives’ pay and the price of a GA travelcard, the small print of the monthly subscription is the next domestic bill to become a parliamentary question.