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Sacre vache! Netflix ne parle pas le Frenchy ... zat is against ze LAW

Zese Ts&Cs sont une boite des puanteur

Netflix's seeming inability to parle Francais has landed the US video giant in trouble.

The French national consumer protection association, CLCV, is suing the online goggle-box for breaking French consumer law.

According to CLCV, Netflix imposes “malicious and illegal clauses” in its contracts with customers.

Apparently Netflix doesn’t provide information about a guaranteed minimum level of quality, or refund arrangements if the picture quality is sub-standard, but the group was also annoyed that certain Netflix conditions referred back to English text, meaning French users might have no idea what they are signing up to.

The service only launched in September, but already has 100,000 subscribers there - surely enough to fund a few lawyer linguists to look over the T&Cs.

Netflix has so far failed to comment on the issue, and El Reg is awaiting reply to an email sent this morning.

Netflix’ French service is run out of Luxembourg. CLCV says that the lack of concern for local consumer protection laws is a symptom of international tech world giants, but adds that it is rare for a company with a large roll-out in France to direct users to English clauses “drafted in Silicon Valley”.

According to CLCV, the contracts also allow Netflix to alter the terms of service as it wishes, without having to consult the consumer - for example the video behemoth can arbitrarily change the number of devices a user can connect to the service, or change the billing date.

Under French law, customers must be informed of a change to the terms of their contract 30 days before any action. CLCV says that Netflix has not undertaken to do so. ®

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