One angry Netflix customer is not taking the streaming service’s price hikes without a fight.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix customer George Keritsis has decided to sue Netflix due to the service’s recent price changes. Keritsis has filed a class action lawsuit proposal in California federal court suing Netflix for continuing to increase its prices, despite the $7.99 per month lifetime subscription fee Keritsis claims he was promised (an issue he believes has impacted at least 22 million people).
According to Keritsis, he decided to join the streaming service when he saw an ad for Netflix guaranteeing a $7.99 per month subscription fee. Keritsis decided to call Netflix and claims to have spoken to a company representative in order to confirm the $7.99 price and make sure that the price would not be raised as long as he maintained his subscription without interruption. Keritsis was assured his $7.99 fee would be grandfathered in if prices were ever raised, and claims to have signed up based on that reassurance.
Keritsis’ filed complaint states, “For a period of time, Netflix solicited persons to subscribe to Netflix’s streaming service by guaranteeing that Netflix would not increase monthly subscription prices as long as the subscribers maintained the subscription service continuously. Netflix has broken its contract with these subscribers by unilaterally raising monthly subscription prices.”
In late 2012, Keritsis noticed that his Netflix subscription price had increased from $7.99 to $8.68. He later received an email stating that his special pricing had come to an end, and that Netflix would now be charging him $9.99 per month. In response to this email, Keritsis gave Netflix a call.
As it states in his complaint, “The Netflix representative stated that he could see Plaintiff’s account was ‘grandfathered in’. Plaintiff protested that the price increase was inconsistent with the lifetime price guarantee. The Netflix representative stated that Netflix would raise prices for all grandfathered accounts, not just Plaintiff’s account.”
This lawsuit is happening just a week after it was reported that Netflix’s streaming library has seen a decrease in size by 40% in recent years. Another high-profile suit is also gearing up, as a man has just filed to sue Apple for $10 billion because he claims to have invented the iPhone in 1992. Keritsis’ case seems light at best, but only time will tell if it stands a chance.
Netflix has not yet commented on the lawsuit.