A German court assessing Deutsche Telekom’s under-fire video service StreamOn announced it would seek advice from the European Court of Justice to evaluate the legality of throttling bandwidth and geographic restrictions on such offers.

Details of the move from the Cologne Administrative Court, published in German publication Legal Tribune Online, follow long-running disputes about the offer, which provides zero-rated streaming on several of the operator’s tariffs.

Deutsche Telekom already found itself on the wrong side of a verdict by national regulator Bundesnetzagentur in 2017, which banned the company from limiting bandwidth on the streaming package and forcing it to extend availability across the European Union (EU) to adhere to roaming regulations.

The operator contested both decisions and subsequently lost an appeal in July 2019.

In a statement in its Q3 2019 financial report, Deutsche Telekom said the appeal decision meant it would stop “optimising” data traffic and make services available in the EU “for the time being”.

It, however, noted the Cologne Administrative Court would conduct a separate review into whether restricting bandwidth and geographical coverage would be compatible with EU laws on net neutrality.

Consumers signing-up to StreamOn are able to consume content from specific providers, comprising 261 music apps, 126 video platforms, 40 gaming companies and 11 social media and chat platforms without impacting their data allowances.