Disney Plus has disabled 4K UHD and HDR streaming in eleven European countries, including the Benelux region.
The move follows a European patent court ruling in favor of tech firm InterDigital.
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The Unified Patent Court issued rulings in June and on July 23, 2026, finding that Disney infringed on InterDigital's patents for the HEVC video codec.
The court ordered Disney to remove the high-definition features within six weeks.
Impact on Subscribers
The court order affects subscribers on the Premium tier, which costs 15.99 euros per month compared to 10.99 euros for the Standard tier.
Without 4K and HDR10 support, Premium now offers Dolby Atmos sound and additional simultaneous streams as its main remaining upgrades.
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Disney previously phased out HDR support in Germany in January following an earlier court decision.
The dispute mirrors a similar case involving Amazon, which resolved its conflict with InterDigital by securing a licensing agreement in June.
Disney expressed disappointment over the judicial outcomes while addressing the feature removal to news outlet FlatpanelsHD.
"We share the frustration of our customers," said Disney, adding that the company is actively working to resolve the issue.
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Disney has not provided a definitive timeline for restoring 4K and HDR playback, nor has it announced plan price reductions or customer compensation.
