A woman known as a so-called broadcasting fee refuser (Beitragsblockerin), who challenged Germany’s public broadcasting fee in court using a template legal submission, has lost her case at the Administrative Court of Cologne.
The claimant had failed to demonstrate in sufficient detail that there was a serious disproportion between the obligation to pay the broadcasting fee and the “benefit of the public broadcasting programme”, the court said on Tuesday, explaining its ruling. She is therefore also required to pay the fee. (Case No. 6 K 5538/24)
According to the court, the woman argued that Germany’s public broadcasters were failing to fulfil their constitutional mandate because they did not provide impartial and diverse programming. She therefore claimed that she received no individual benefit in return for paying the broadcasting fee.
Among other things, she specifically criticised the broadcasters’ coverage of the coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19 vaccines, as well as the war in Ukraine.
However, the Administrative Court rejected her argument. The claimant had failed to prove that the programming offered by public broadcasters did not justify the obligation to pay the fee. She had only pointed to isolated violations of the public broadcasters’ programming mandate. The ruling can still be challenged. An application for permission to appeal may be filed.
According to the Administrative Court, so-called broadcasting fee refusers use template legal submissions purchased online for a fee to file lawsuits challenging the obligation to pay the broadcasting fee. The court said that 320 similar cases are currently pending before the chamber responsible for these proceedings at the Cologne Administrative Court alone.
Legal challenges to the broadcasting fee are repeatedly brought before the courts. Last year, the Federal Administrative Court had already emphasised that successful lawsuits challenging the broadcasting fee on the grounds of allegedly one-sided reporting face significant legal hurdles.
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