Context: Disney has been hit with several patent infringement disputes across the world, including by ETRI (October 8, 2026 ip fray article), IBEX (September 10, 2026 ip fray article), Ericsson (October 15, 2026 ip fray article), and InterDigital. The latter has won six injunctions in the Munich I Regional Court and the UPC (collectively, with the latest issued last month: September 2, 2026 ip fray article). Disney reacted by turning off premium video features in several EU jurisdictions (January 23, 2026 ip fray article and July 28, 2026 ip fray article) – only restoring some of that technology in Germany in August (August 5, 2026 ip fray article). InterDigital has since filed a €101.7 million ($118 million) damages lawsuit against Disney (September 14, 2026 ip fray article). And, last month, French consumer rights protection organisation, Que Choisir, sent Disney a formal notice, criticizing its behavior and demanding that it reduce its price, provide compensation, and stop misleading customers (September 25, 2026 ip fray article).
What’s new: Euroconsumers, a consumer advocacy group representing more than seven million people across Belgium, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Poland, and Brazil, has sent Disney a formal notice demanding automatic compensation for Disney+ Premium subscribers in Italy, Belgium, and Portugal. The notice claims direct refunds or price reductions for all affected premium subscribers backdated to when 4K/HDR support was disabled.
Direct impact: Euroconsumers referred to several EU digital content and services directives, threatening to launch consumer action suits if Disney does not comply. Further, should the streaming giant refuse to compensate subscribers within 14 calendar days of receiving the formal notice, the advocacy group will file formal complaints with the Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Network requesting the imposition of administrative fines of up to 4% of Disney’s annual turnover in the relevant Member States. The consumer advocacy group filed the notice on October 6, 2026, but Disney has not yet confirmed receipt.
Wider ramifications: Events from the last couple of days mean Disney is now faced with pressure from all sides of the market to pay – both for patent licensing agreements and for the financial harm it has caused consumers. According to estimated subscriber figures from Dataxis and Omdia, there are 1,532,000 ad-free Disney+ tier subscribers in Italy, 527,000 in Belgium and 349,000 in Portugal. Each of them is owed at least €5 a month over the period when Disney was offering a reduced picture quality service – which accumulates to over €12 million a month. If this were to then be extended to all 11 affected EU countries, that total would rise to €62.8 million.
The demands
Euroconsumers, which represents member organizations such as Belgium’s Test-Achats, Italy’s Altroconsumo, and Portugal’s DECO Proteste, has made the following demands:
- Establish an automated, transparent mechanism to immediately reduce monthly subscription fees for all affected (new and current) Premium subscribers in Italy, Belgium and Portugal to reflect the degraded 1080p SDR service status;
- Calculate and automatically credit back to all affected Premium accounts the retroactive price differential, quantified at a minimum of €5.00 per month per subscriber, covering the entire period of feature deprivation (from December 2025 or June/July 2026, respectively, to the present date);
- Provide all consumers concerned, in a clear, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible manner, with adequate and timely information regarding the issue in question, including the nature and extent of the service degradation, the categories of subscribers affected, the period during which the degradation has occurred and all remedies and solutions available to them.
Marco Scialdone, Head of Litigation at Euroconsumers, said in a statement yesterday:
“To date, we have received no response from Disney, either by email or in writing. However, based on our experience with similar cases, we reasonably expect to receive a response by mid-November. Should Disney fail to respond, we will proceed with the actions outlined in our formal notice.”
Workaround was not enough
The formal notice calls back on the judgments issue in Germany in June and July, which led to Disney+ removing its support for the Dolby Vision HDR format and 4K UHD resolution and HDR10 support from its streaming services, respectively. While Disney did deploy an alternative solution in early August, this restoration was only partial, with 4K initially unavailable across many widely used device categories, and HDR remaining absent, the notice states.
Eurconsumers is known for “Dieselgate”. The group filed a class action case against Volkswagen over a decade ago, urging it to compensate Belgian, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese consumers for misleading them over how much their cars polluted (November 15, 2022 Euroconsumers release). The case is still pending in Portugal and Spain, but consumers in Belgium and Italy reached successful settlements. In April 2026, approximately €42.8 million was successfully distributed to nearly 47,000 Italian consumers via a dedicated digital platform. Individual payouts ranged from €550 to €1,100 per vehicle.