It’s certainly not easy goings for the Walt Disney Company at the moment.
The company has been facing a slump in its film productions, with many of its recent films not hitting the mark at the box office; in 2022, they had the year’s biggest flop. They’ve also been embroiled in a long-drawn-out feud with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that began over the “Don’t Say Gay” law (officially called the Parental Rights in Education Act) and has now become a bitter battle of lawsuits with frequent new developments.
But it seems that Florida lawmakers aren’t the only ones from whom Disney is facing issues.
UK Streamer Laws: the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill
The draft bill originated in the House of Commons and aims to “provide for the regulation of competition in digital markets.” The specific part of the bill that Disney is raising issues with, however, is the stipulation that “will require streamers to send ‘reminder notices’ to customers every six months to make them aware that they remain subscribed.”
As reported by Deadline, this will require Disney to “send contract renewal notices to Disney+ (Disney Plus) users and allow customers to ‘game’ the streaming service without paying.”
Disney’s Response to the Bill
The Mouse House, as one can imagine, is not happy about the bill from the UK government, stating that the bill is an attempt to “micro-manage” the way streamers interact with their customers.
Disney argued that it is already providing customers with a “timely and clear notice” of the recurring fee; the Mouse House also argued that its current system makes it easier for customers to cancel their Disney+ subscription than subscribe. They also added that the move might end up having a counterproductive effect, as increased emails to subscribers might cause them to ignore emails from the company, thereby having the opposite impact on the desired outcome.
Officially, Disney said:
The combination of the market imperatives, consumer preferences, our practice of providing timely and clear notice of the recurring fee and the ease of terminating the agreement should obviate the need for mandated renewal notices.
At a minimum, it obviates the need for the micro-managing of how and when these notices should be sent, which is a serious flaw in the draft bill that fails to recognise that it could lead to consumer’s ignoring notices.
Price Hikes as a Consequence of the Bill
This wasn’t all. Disney also went so far as to warn that if the bill did go through, due to the section that details the introduction of a “14-day cooling-off period for digital subscription services,” which would allow users to cancel the subscription service within two weeks without paying for it, it might result in users gaming the system, bingeing the content they want to watch without spending any money.
Disney warned this could have a real consequence on loyal customers, i.e., price hikes. They said:
This would allow these bad actors to benefit from our service without compensation to the detriment of the vast majority of good actors as it could likely result in a price increase given the reduction in the subscriber base and the high cost of producing high-quality content.
The bill is presently in the committee stage at the House of Commons and still has various steps to go through before it can be passed.
