Internet in Luxembourg: Has your Internet subscription increased? It’s legal

PublishedSeptember 3, 2022, 09:57

Internet in Luxembourg: Has your Internet subscription increased? It’s legal

LUXEMBOURG – An Internet access provider has the right to adapt its prices, even before the expiry of the contract signed by the customer.

Some households have to pay more to access the Internet.

Freepik

Customers of certain Internet service providers have recently been surprised to see their bills increase. “After years of falling selling prices, we were forced to increase the prices of our Internet and television subscriptions by two euros per month in the middle of the year”, explains Luxembourg Online, for example. “We keep, to our knowledge, the lowest prices on the market,” says the operator.

This price increase “is part of a context of sharp increase in the costs of our suppliers in recent years”, justifies the company. She mentions the costs paid for the supply of fiber and for the supply of equipment rented to customers, energy prices or even salary costs. “We have noted price increases with several operators”, accompanied by “requests for mediation” from consumers, confirms the Luxembourg Institute of Regulation (ILR).

Legal increases

Tango also deplores an increase in 2022 “in the price of access to the network, as well as the prices of certain television content providers”. However, the company would have chosen “to absorb these increases and not to pass them on to its subscriptions”. POST also specifies that it has not changed its prices since June 2020.

These increases, practiced while the contracts are still running (via for example commitments of 12 or 24 months), are “legal”, recognizes Navid Poushanchi, lawyer at the Luxembourg Consumers’ Union (ULC). The latter has also received some complaints from Internet users. The 2011 law “frames these increases. Operators are required to inform users at least one month before the adjustment of tariffs,” he said. Consumers are then released from their commitment and can terminate their contract unilaterally.