Dazn refunds: what the Agcom regulation provides

Dazn shortly (perhaps as early as tomorrow) let people know which refund it will be up to his customers for the inefficiencies of August 14, when during the first day of Serie A many had problems in the live use of the matches. As we know, the Communications Authority (Agcom) sent a letter on August 15 for ask for simplified compensation proceduresgiven the severity of the events.

In the meantime, the reference document for these cases remains the Resolution of the Guarantor number 17/22 / CONS of March 2022 (Annex A). It means that Dazn in the worst case scenario for subscribers – will be able to just reimburse € 7.49 to customers who pay € 29.99 and € 9.99 to those who pay € 39.99 per month. Watch out for, because this is the minimum threshold established by the resolution and does not rule out that Dazn may decide to fully repay the monthly payment.

The Agcom reference document for this case is entitled “Definition of the quality indicators of the experience of users of live streaming platforms and related compensation“. Practically the quality indicators of the user experience of the live video streaming platforms are defined and in particular those relating to the services of the Dazn platform. Obviously these parameters also establish the threshold that should allow customers to be reimbursed in cases of disservice. Specifically, the series identified as the most recurrent critical issues: any problems in accessing the platform, freezing during events or poor image resolution.

So it is sufficient to manifest during a single live streaming event one of the following conditions for legitimize the indemnities:

• More than 5 failed attempts to access the live streaming platform (MAP) or to select one of the available live streaming events (MAE). In the case of the MAP, only access attempts made with at least 20 seconds of interval between them must be considered for the calculation of the indicator. In the case of MAE, the attempt to access an event is considered to have failed if an error message is received by the platform or if, after a timeout of 60 seconds from the selection of the event, the content has not yet started; always calculating at least 20 seconds of interval between them.
• More than 3 disconnections from an event in live streaming, with the need to start it again.
• More than 270 seconds of total freezingconsidered as the total sum of all the interruptions that occurred during the streaming of a live event.
• A resolution lower than 540p in case of connection from fixed or mobile device with download speed higher than 2 Mbps; a resolution lower than 720p in case of connection from fixed or mobile device with download speed higher than 4 Mbps; a resolution lower than 720p or with less than 50 frames per second in case of connection from a fixed device with download speed higher than 6 Mbps; resolution lower than 1080p or with less than 50 50 frames per second in the case of connection from a fixed device with a download speed higher than 10 Mbps. Mobile devices are smartphones and tablets, while fixed devices are smart TVs, PCs and set-tops. -box. Finally, resolution is understood to be that maintained for at least 10% of the event

Agcom suggests that the Measure Internet Speed ​​Test of the Authority. “It is recommended to carry out the measurement, in particular for mobile networks, in a time interval close to the event in live streaming“, underlines the Guarantor.

Secondly, again on the document of last March, Agcom suggests that for the purposes of transparency towards the user and proof in the event of a request for compensation “the provider of the live video streaming service must make available to each user, within the video playback application in correspondence with the screen being viewed, a window that can be opened with a click containing information about the values ​​of the parameters TFT, Rmin, Fmin and Average throughput measured when streaming events“That’s it, total freezing time, minimum resolution, minimum number of video frame rates and average capacity.

“In addition, the values ​​of all the parameters functional to the aforementioned indemnities must be made available in a specific section of the user’s reserved area for at least 6 months from the end of each event.“, concludes the document. The section seems not to have been inaugurated yet.

Agcom has established that in the event of violation of the minimum thresholds of the service, the provider of the live video streaming service must correspond, or in the form of an invoice discount or refunda amount equal to 25% of the user’s monthly subscription, net of any discounts or promotions. “The maximum compensation a user may be entitled to in a month is equal to 100% of the monthly subscription, net of any discounts or promotions. It is not possible to obtain more than one compensation per week“, reads the document.

This explains why, depending on the type of subscription, customers will be entitled to receive € 7.49 or € 9.99. “The user must enclose the contractual conditions for the provision of the live streaming and connectivity service with the request for compensation, including, where available, the minimum guaranteed bandwidth.“, reminds the Guarantor. In this sense, the user can attach the screen of the execution of the Internet Speed ​​Test Measurement, performed by the device in use, showing the download speed. TFT, MAP, MAE, ND, Rmin, Fmin through photographic material or electronic prints or copies.

“Where it is not possible to use MisuraInternet Speed ​​Test on the same device from which the event is viewed in live streaming, the user can perform the measurement with MisuraInternet Speed ​​Test using another device connected to the same network and located in the immediate vicinity of the device used for viewing the event.“, adds the Guarantor. The compensation request must be submitted within 7 calendar days of the live streaming event to which the room refers.

In conclusion, we must wait for the official communication from Dazn and its procedures aimed at simplifying requests.

Before unleashing the dust, it is good to know that at this moment Dazn is already under the barrage of lobbies who would like to return to the past, therefore it is foreseeable that refund requests will be easy. The cost of the whole operation in the worst case scenario for the company – could be close to 15 million euros, but only if all customers were reimbursed by 25% as required by the rules.

All that remains is to wait. And above all, let’s not demolish the principle of competition that has brought us to date, but rather the inability to establish more stringent rules and controls for the quality of services.

And then a piece of advice: forget about the Dazn compensation form for now (link below in sources) because it is totally useless.unless you have photographic evidence (in JPEG or PNG format) of the malfunction and snapshot of the speed of the internet connection recorded by Misurainternet during the fruition of the event, as available on the app and on the Dazn website.