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Netflix Admits Blocking VPN Users in Australia Opening Legal Can of Worms

posted by martyb on Monday June 08 2020, @10:38PM   
from the Do-unto-others dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Since the beginning of 2020 Netflix has been waging a war against its own users to prevent them from using proxy, VPN and unblocker technology to access Netflix content even though this action is legal in many countries. In Australia Netflix has reported "connection errors" to paying customers, advising them to "check their network" including to "restart their router" in order to "fix" a problem accessing Netflix. The issue is that there was no such problem. It was Netflix deliberately blocking paying customers from accessing the service they paid for. As of June 2020 Netflix shows a proper error message and redirects users to a page stating that using a proxy or VPN is disallowed. While Netflix can set the terms of service it can't deceive customers or act fraudulently. Netflix did not post information to its customers that it was blocking VPN, for example, it just cut the connection. This deceptive behaviour could see Netflix run afoul of the ACCC Non-delivery of products & services which states that It is illegal for a business to accept payment for products or services they do not intend to supply.

What would you do if you were paying for a service and the vendor refused to provide the service and did not tell you why?

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Original Submission

• Lying to the customer (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2020, @06:02PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2020, @06:02PM (#1005296)

  Netflix is essentially obligated to block VPNS because some of the licensors of some of the shows that they carry refuse to grant them a worldwide streaming license and want to impose restrictions to a limited geographical region for whatever asinine reason. If Netflix did not make an effort to block methods to circumvent these geographic restrictions, they would be breaching the licensing contracts and they could be open to litigation and damages in addition to losing the streaming license entirely. It is thus understandable that they would take measures to block VPNs and other means of circumventing geographic restrictions. But why would they also try to LIE to their customers about the reason why they are unable to access the service? It does not make any kind of sense since it runs afoul of consumer protection laws in multiple jurisdictions to do so. Did their licensors put them up to doing so as a "poison pill" (as it were) for them perhaps? Not unlikely given the antagonistic relationship Netflix has with some of the entities it licenses shows from. But if such provisions were in their contracts, they would be largely unenforceable at least in jurisdictions where consumer protection laws exist that would make such deceit illegal.

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