After Telekom announced its intention to throttle DSL and VDSL connections from 2016 (Telekom brings throttling to the fixed network), there was now a ruling, which was made by the Regional Court of Cologne and prohibits the throttling of Telekom at least in the Call&Surf tariffs. The complaint had been filed by consumer protection groups in NRW, who wanted to ensure that "customers have the assurance that the promised surfing speed will not be reduced over the entire term of the contract„.
The decision of the Regional Court of Cologne (file number 26 O 211/13) can, according to the Golem.com still be contested - it can be assumed that Telekom will not be so easily dissuaded from its throttling plans.
Interestingly, the ruling only affects one tariff group of a provider: others, such as congstar or o2, also want to introduce throttling for DSL - they will now certainly pay attention to the exact wording. In any case, it is interesting that the courts have followed the argumentation of the consumer protectors and that throttling of Internet connections cannot be implemented without further ado - perhaps it will lead to a rethink on the part of the providers after all.