Premium plan cut back, price unchanged
It was always coming, and now it's here: UFC-Que Choisir has officially served Disney+ with a formal notice, accusing it of charging Premium subscribers full whack when they've lost part of what they were paying for, namely 4K, HDR and Dolby Vision. The association's complaint is that the American platform has neither lowered the price of its plan nor offered any compensation off its own bat, except to those who went to the trouble of contacting customer services individually.
A quick recap: it all started in early 2026, when Disney+ pulled Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and 3D in several European countries including France. HDR then went the same way, before 4K itself was withdrawn over the summer, leaving films and series capped at Full HD (1080p). Yet the Premium subscription, which costs €15.99 a month against €10.99 for the Standard plan, is largely justified by that superior picture quality — so subscribers have carried on paying the same amount for a service that no longer offers them the same thing.
A patent dispute with InterDigital
Behind all this lies a commercial and legal dispute between Disney and InterDigital, a company specialising in imaging and wireless communications technologies. InterDigital holds several patents used in various image upscaling technologies and reckons Disney+ was exploiting them without adequate licensing. The firm says it spent several years negotiating with Disney in search of an agreement before taking the matter to several courts. And according to InterDigital, a number of rulings went its way, but Disney chose to strip certain technologies from its service rather than carry on using them under the same terms. That's what explains the disappearance of Dolby Vision and HDR, and then the withdrawal of 4K on certain devices. Disney has since found another way to offer 4K again on some equipment, using the VP9 codec.
Disney+ eventually restored 4K by leaning on an alternative to HEVC (the codec it previously used), with technical analyses identifying VP9. This workaround sidesteps the heart of the dispute, but it has its limits, since the new 4K streams remain SDR and therefore deliver neither HDR nor Dolby Vision. It also comes with hardware constraints, as certain compatible televisions and devices can receive the stream while Apple devices and some other kit may not have access to it — which is why Disney now displays notices explaining that the quality available depends on the device being used.
The upshot is a situation that's become rather hard for subscribers to follow. 4K Ultra HD hasn't vanished entirely from Disney+, since some devices can now enjoy it again thanks to VP9. But not all equipment is covered, which means two subscribers paying exactly the same price may today not have access to the same picture quality depending on their television or playback device. Disney+ now flags some of these restrictions in the information attached to its plan, but UFC-Que Choisir believes the way these changes were presented to consumers is problematic.
What UFC-Que Choisir is demanding
UFC-Que Choisir also points out that subscribers already signed up to the Premium plan received no automatic compensation. Some users managed to obtain a goodwill gesture after contacting customer services individually, but no general compensation policy has been announced. Given all this, UFC-Que Choisir has served Disney with a formal notice, asking it to bring its offer back in line with what was promised or, failing that, to lower the price. It also demands that the Premium subscribers affected be clearly informed of the changes made, that they receive proportionate, objective and uniform compensation, and that the platform drop any marketing claims liable to mislead consumers. The ball is now in Disney's court....
