The Regional Court of Munich has issued a significant ruling against ARTE Deutschland TV. The court found the broadcaster guilty of anti-competitive discrimination and ordered it to pay damages to Rosenheim-based telecommunications company komro. The July 16, 2025 decision mandates that ARTE pay komro the same carriage fees per household for all units served in 2015 as it paid to cable operator Unitymedia Kabel BW.
Furthermore, the court requires ARTE to disclose the carriage fees it has paid or owes to Vodafone or its predecessors between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2021 (case number 37 O 16941/23). Following disclosure, the court will determine damages for the years 2016 to 2021. It's important to note that this ruling is not yet legally binding.
This case stems from years of resistance by ARTE to paying carriage fees to network operators represented by the cable association DNMG, notably komro. DNMG actively supports its members in pursuing legal action when necessary. A 2021 ruling by Germany’s Federal Court of Justice (BGH) established that smaller cable operators must receive equal treatment regarding carriage fees. Following this ruling, DNMG successfully negotiated carriage fee agreements with public broadcasters ZDF and ARD. However, ARTE’s continued defiance led to over 100 additional lawsuits across Germany, including in Kiel, Hamburg, Potsdam, Mannheim, and Munich. The Munich court decision represents the first ruling in this series of proceedings.
ARTE’s defense centered on the argument that it does not engage in market activity, doesn't seek carriage services, and that its primary mission is cultural exchange, not national public service. It also claimed to have no commercial interest in signal distribution due to its funding through broadcasting fees. The court rejected these arguments, stating that producing and broadcasting content by publicly funded broadcasters is not a sovereign task exempt from market rules. The court emphasized that because ARTE is financed by licence fee payers, there is a legitimate expectation that its programmes are widely distributed. The court concluded that ARTE’s unequal treatment in paying carriage fees constitutes anti-competitive discrimination within the German cable transmission market.
Ingo Schuchert, managing director of DNMG and responsible for negotiations, expressed his criticism of ARTE’s approach: “It feels Kafkaesque. The Federal Court of Justice has repeatedly ruled in favour of the network operators. ARD and ZDF, ARTE’s German shareholders, have already reached settlements with DNMG. Why ARTE continues these costly legal disputes – some ongoing since 2012 – at the expense of licence fee payers is incomprehensible. We hope this Munich ruling will lead ARTE to agree on fair and non-discriminatory terms to resolve these cases.”