In the opinion of a court, a mobile phone contract can run for longer than 24 months under certain circumstances.

That was decided by the Cologne Higher Regional Court, as it became known on Monday (file number 6 U 160/20).

One of the proceedings before the court concerned a man who had taken over his father's contract and signed a new paper in September 2021 - five months before the end of the contract.

For this he got a new smartphone.

The contract with a changed tariff at Deutsche Telekom ran for 29 months from the time the contract was signed.

That was too long for the customer.

The Federation of German Consumer Organizations sued for him, from the point of view of which it was a new contract that could not run for longer than 24 months.

However, the court assessed the signature as an extension of the old contract, which ran for another five months.

According to the judges, the customer expressly agreed to a contract extension in the documents and was given the opportunity to purchase a cell phone at discounted rates.

According to the law, cell phone contracts can only run for a maximum of 24 months.

In the opinion of the court, however, an early extension can result in a longer term.

An appeal against the judgment was not allowed, so the last word has almost certainly been spoken on this matter.

The plaintiff had previously received a rebuff at the Bonn Regional Court.

Kerstin Hoppe from the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV) spoke of a “bad judgment for consumers”.

"The new contract had different terms and conditions than the old one - although the contract was extended, according to the content it was a new contract from the point of view of the VZBV."

Criticism of lack of transparency

The telecommunications industry is often opaque to customers, for whom the exact contract details are sometimes not clear - therefore a clear limit of a maximum of 24 months is important, argues Hoppe.

She expects that the judgment could have a signal effect for other, similar cases.

"This is unfortunate because it weakens the consumer's position."

A Telekom spokesman said, "We are pleased that the Cologne Higher Regional Court has also followed our legal opinion on the binding of contracts when renewing with a new smartphone beyond 2 years and has confirmed the previous judgment of the Bonn Regional Court".

Last week, the Bundestag passed a draft law for fair consumer contracts submitted by Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD).

There is still a minimum term for cell phone tariffs, fitness studios and streaming services.

An automatic extension of fixed-term contracts should only be possible to a very limited extent.

Consumers should be able to withdraw from the contract within one month after the agreed term has expired.