Beitragsservice runs nationwide registration data comparison in 2018

In 2018 the Beitragsservice, the joint office of Germany's public broadcasters that collects the Rundfunkbeitrag (the household broadcasting fee), carried out a nationwide comparison of registration data. Local registration offices (Einwohnermeldeämter) passed on data about adult residents so it could be matched against the existing list of fee payers.

The aim was to identify homes and people who had never been registered for the fee. Anyone who lived at an address without a payer on record could then receive a letter asking them to register or to explain why they were exempt, for example because another person in the household already paid.

The procedure was based on the state treaty on the broadcasting fee (Rundfunkbeitragsstaatsvertrag), which allows such comparisons at set intervals. A similar one-off check had been run after the fee was reformed into a per-household charge in 2013. Supporters said the comparisons made the system fairer by ensuring everyone contributed. Critics raised data protection concerns about the mass transfer of personal data. The 2018 exercise became a reference point for later rounds of the same check.