Anthropic- Making the Case
Rounds 3 and 4: My continuing appeals for the active engagement of national and EU law enforcement in restoring my consumer rights. Anytime now will work well...
This was the start of my evidence gathering. It was a very confusing time. My concept of time had been distorted by the intensity of work, so much so I confused 22.5 hours with two days; got start and cancellation dates wrong, lots of errors in calculations as new evidence came to light.
The email chain includes short questions and clarifications, not in the expectation of getting an answer, rather establishing a written audit trail.
Appendix 1 below shows the key evidence I assembled over the last 12 days and, hopefully, error free. Do let me know if you find otherwise.
4 March 2026 @ 17:58 - Commenced remora attachment
22.5 hours later…
5 Mar 2026 @ 16:28 - Subscription cancelled
1.5 hours AFTER cancellation…
5 Mar 2026 @ 17:58 - €12.20 remora attach AFTER cancellation.
CARD BLOCKED, but not before the remora had its way.
In a
22.5 hour period, during which I worked Claude for the usual…
17 hours, Anthropic made…
7 charges, before cancellation, and in…
< 24 hours, the remora extracted…
€86.58, which is…
4 times the monthly subscription of €22. A burn rate of…
€2,728.00 per month, or
€32,736.00 per year
Anthropic’s remora charged while both Claude and I were asleep, and, after the subscription had been cancelled!
11 March’26.
cc: Italian law enforcement (AGCM & Garante) and EU law enforcement (CNECT-AIOFFICE).
Dear Sir or Madam
Today is Wednesday 11 March 2026.
I have a question that must be within your remit.
What commercial, ethical, or legal justification is there for degrading a service by 90% for 1/2 of a contract period when the charges already levied exceed the cost of the maximum level by 10%.
Anthropic have charged me 10% more than for their maximum un-throttled bandwidth while throttling my service by 90%!!!
I’ve included a timeline of events to better understand the contrast in service levels.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
20 Feb to 20 Mar 2026 Account summary
15 days of 15 hours of intense use per day, all week.
+
15 days of 5 hours per WEEK - usage throttled back to 10% of first 10 days. Projection to contract end date of 20 March ‘26 based on Anthropic’s current practice.
Total cost = €152 ( €14 more than Claude max 5x)
I have now overpaid my original subscription by a factor of 7, more than the Claude Max 5x rate, and am receiving a service degraded by 90%.
What commercial, ethical, or legal justification is there for degrading a service by 90% for 1/2 of a contract period when the charges already levied exceed the Claude max 5x (€138) subscription charge by €14?
Anthropic publishes no SLA (service level agreement), no MTBF (mean time between failures), no MTTR (mean time to repair).
Anthropic is nowhere near 3 nines on current evidence.
They’re charging 5 nines prices.
The 5 nines standard:
99.999% uptime, 5.26 minutes downtime per year, is the minimum acceptable in any enterprise environment. Claude is not an enterprise product. It just charges like one.
FURTHER
Cancelling my subscription did not cancel the top-up mechanism. Neatly ring fenced from the contract I terminated, Anthropic continued to charge my card after cancellation.
Two separate contracts presented as one.
This is not an oversight, it is the architecture of collusion that crosses a legal and ethical rubicon.
Do you not agree?
What is your threshold for meaningful action in real time?
The passage of meaningful real time?
DETAILS
20 Feb 2026 - Commence ClaudeAI subscription at the base level of €22 per month.
I spent the first 13 to 15 days at the rate of up to 15 hours per day using Claude AI for a series of tasks ranging from the complex, requiring endless series of image uploads, code downloads, writing reviews, research etc. to the mundane.
THAT’S 15 HOURS EVERY DAY, before the week’s ‘token’ clock reset.
3 or 4 March 2026 - there is no clear record (Apple account) of when precisely I turned on the additional ‘token’ element to allow me to continue uninterrupted. The absence of precise details is all of a piece implying collusion between Apple who hold my card details and Anthropic who have used it fraudulently.
6 March 2026- Anthropic had extracted the following amounts from my card;
€22 + €104 = €126 in two days
versus
Claude max 5x = €138 for 30 days
In two days I had paid almost as much as the unlimited plan.
This is not a usage charge, it is a trap, conducted in the most opaque manner.
The ‘token’ throttle is Anthropic’s solution to their infrastructure cost problem, passed to the user as a “usage limit” without ever explaining what unit of resource they’re actually metering.
CPU cycles, API tokens, memory, 1 question, 10 questions , 2 long ones, 3 short ones, 1 image upload, 10, 1000, code?
They don’t say.
No details other than the amount taken.
6 March 2026 - I cancelled the subscription leaving the best part of 15 days, fully paid. The charges did not stop. Anthropic continued to extract funds from my account (€13 x 2) before I was able to block their direct access.
20 Feb to 20 Mar 2026 Account summary
15 days of 15 hours of intense use per day, all week.
15 days of service degraded by 90% (projected to 20 Mar’26 based on current degradation)
Total cost = €152 ( €14 more than Claude max 5x)
Cancelling my subscription did not cancel the top-up mechanism. Neatly ringfenced from the contract I terminated, Anthropic continued to charge my card after cancellation.
Two separate contracts presented as one. That apple are unaware of this practice?
This is not an oversight.
This is the architecture of collusion that crosses a legal and ethical rubicon.
I complained to Anthropic and demanded a refund and informed them of this escalation to, you, the Italian authorities.
That’s yourselves.
10 March 2026 - Anthropic started really throttling my use. This got progressively worse day by day until the point that I am going through my week’s allocation in 5 hours of 1 day’s use, FOR THE ENTIRE WEEK.
That’s a service degradation of 90%.
Why?
What commercial, ethical, or legal justification is there for degrading a service by 90% for 1/2 of a contract period when the charges already levied exceed the Claude max 5x (€138) subscription charge by €14?
Yesterday, as I have reported over the past 2 days, Anthropic shut me out of the rest of my subscription period until 05:00, Friday 13 March 2026, when they claim the clock of nebulous ‘tokens’ restarts.
I have every reason to believe they intend to repeat this pattern for next week, the last week of my subscription now overpaid by a factor of 7.
This remains the case today, Wednesday 11 March 2026
I am being deliberately penalised for challenging them on their shabby practices and for reporting them to you; ironic when the only remedy I have is you.
I’d be very grateful if I’m not simply a case in the evidence chain in your prosecution of Anthropic, if and whenever.
The IT world moves at the speed of light.
On the existing evidence, the law enforcement I’m entitled to through your agency appears incompatible with the enforcement of EU law during the period of the abusive practice, which is now.
After the event is not much good to me now.
I am suffering real world loss of contractual value and thus far the law enforcement agencies tasked with preventing it are little more than spectators.
I’m struggling to understand why Anthropic are not being informed, now at the time of the breach, that I have recorded a challenge of their predatory practices with the law enforcement authorities; yourselves.
At least let them know you are shining a light on their practices.
Anthropic are acting with impunity counting on not being brought to contract terms in the available time left; and it would appear, with good cause.
I repeat:
I have now overpaid my original subscription by a factor of 7 and am receiving a service degraded by 90%.
Thus far, if you’ll forgive the comparison, the absence of a law enforcement response or even an acknowledgement of the complaint is on a par with being beaten up in the presence of police who simply observe and take notes.
Comforting for the prosecution’s case, far less so for the victim’s.
At what point is your threshold for prompt, timely and meaningful action triggered?
- Unfair predatory commercial practices - evidenced above.
- Breach of EU contract law - evidenced above.
- Fraudulently concealing 2 contracts behind one - evidenced above
- Collusion with Apple (my account details holder) to fraudulently conceal 2 contracts behind one - evidenced above
- Overpaid original subscription by a factor of 7 - evidenced above.
What commercial, ethical, or legal justification is there for degrading a service by 90% for 1/2 of a contract period when the charges already levied exceed the Claude max 5x (€138) subscription charge by €14?
Anthropic have charged me 10% more than for their maximum un-throttled bandwidth while simultaneously throttling my service by 90%!!!
My understanding, and indeed experience, of law enforcement in the real world is that it has as much to do with prevention and deterrence as with remedy and cure.
My concern is that the enforcement of laws governing services in the digital world seem focused on remedy and cure at the expense of prevention and deterrence.
I believe this approach fails to reflect the spirit of EU consumer protection law which aims for remedies in real time.
I look forward to a prompt, timely and meaningful intervention.
Regards
0808
Il giorno Tue 10 Mar 2026 alle 12:58 0808@pec.it ha scritto:
Dear Sir/Madam
I’m struggling to understand why Anthropic aren’t being made aware, now in the time of the breach, that I have recorded a challenge to their predatory practices.
They are acting with impunity counting on not being brought to contract terms in the available time left.
I look forward to a prompt, timely and meaningful intervention.
Regards
0808
Il giorno Tue 10 Mar 2026 alle 12:37 jalise@pec.it ha scritto:
Dear sir madam
Today is Tuesday 10 March 2026.
Anthropic have shut me out of the rest of my subscription period until Friday 13 March 2026, when the claim the clock of nebulous ‘tokens’ restarts.
I am being deliberately penalised for challenging them on their shabby practices and the only remedy I have is you.I’d be very grateful if I’m not simply a piece is evidence in your prosecution of them, if and whenever.
The IT world moves at the speed of light. I’m not sure that’s compatible with the legal protection I’m entitled to during the period of the abusive practice, which is now.
After the event is not much good to me now.
I am suffering real world loss of contractual value and thus far the agencies tasked with preventing it are little more than spectators.
I look forward to prompt and timely intervention.
Regards
0808
Il giorno Tue 10 Mar 2026 alle 05:40 jalise@pec.it ha scritto:
Dear sir madam
NB: Updated to include current abusive practice.
I am writing to follow up on my earlier mail regarding unfair commercial practices.
Prior to invoking the ad hoc mechanism for increasing the number of ‘tokens’, a typical day’s professional technical session involved:
Ghost migration, SMTP configuration, newsletter setup, editorial work, Reddit strategy, two published essays, delivered in one day. All of the config work involved endless screenshots back to Claude, because my techie days are way behind me.
I was handheld by Claude every step of the way. If you’ve ever created a web site, then been forced to migrate to a virtual server whilst trying to keep output high, you’ll know there are hundreds of steps involved, each into territory I’ve never seen in my life before, despite being a data network specialist in my past.
At the peak of this intensity of activity is when I reached my subscription limits and sought relief with the ‘wet finger in the wind’ offer of undefined ‘tokens’. Very bad idea.
I include this account, and forgive me, but it is to provide a contrast against my current level, post subscription cancellation, as well as card blocking to prevent Anthropic from continuing to charge post the cancellation, which they managed twice before I was able to stop it.
At present, I’m constantly being throttled by misanthropic. 5 to 10 minutes is apparently exceeding my subscription limits. Since 04:30 yesterday morning I was only only allowed to upload one image.
I was hitting every limit they can impose.
This is a deliberate act of retribution for cancelling, blocking and, if they’ve heard from yourselves, revenge for reporting them. If they haven’t heard from you, I can only imagine how much more they’ll squeeze my bandwidth.
I am not making evidence-free claims, Claude has all our conversations in compressed format which makes them difficult to access directly.
If Anthropic which to challenge my claims of severe service degradations since cancellation and payment blocking, I invite them to bring the receipts for due diligence.
At the point of cancellation I had 13 days of my subscription left, which should have returned to the pre undefined ‘tokens’ of infrastructure cost being passed to me.
This has not happened. In fact the opposite as I’m sure you can observe from the contrast I provide above.
I am not aware of your response times, but I would like to recover my paid for, as per contract, subscription without service degradation until the 20th of March 2026 - midnight? They don’t say.
I have every intention of restoring my subscription but not on the present terms.
I seek your assistance in a return to the days of pre undefined ‘tokens’ of infrastructure cost being passed to me.
I look forward to your response.
Thanks and regards
0808
Note: Update on 10 March 2026
At the point of cancellation I had 13 days of my subscription left, which should have returned to the pre undefined ‘tokens’ of infrastructure cost being passed to me.
Today, I have 10 days of my original subscription left. The current bandwidth that I am being allowed is a fraction of what it is was prior to applying to use the additional ‘tokens’, as described above.
I am writing to update you on my current limitations
For the last 2 mornings I have been getting these messages
Since the cancellation of my subscription to halt the continuous stream of charges several times a day, I have not been allowed access to Claude for more that a few hours a day and with severe upload limits.
I understand and claim this is unfair practice. I have complained to the appropriate authorities, yourselves, and thus far my complaints have not been acknowledged or addressed.
I am not aware of your timescales, as you have not shared them with me, but it would appear that your shield against this unfair commercial conduct is not one that applies in real time.
Whilst the evidence such as the above provides you with the basis for prosecution, it would appear to be at the expense of those suffering the unfair practices in real time.
Delighted as I might or might not be by the outcome of your prosecution, it is your protection and or intervention in the present that I am hoping to engage.
Anthropic have broken their contract with me, are deliberately throttling me to about 10% of the original, pre cancellation.
Anthropic are able to do this because the remedies against are at some point in the future and they are not being held accountable by the relevant authorities in real time.
Forgive me if I point out that this approach is useless as a remedy for protection against the current abuses the EU legislated against.
I want to continue my subscription but if it is going to be with these current restrictions it will be a breach of EU law, one with no real-time remedy.
Once again, I seek your assistance in a return to the days of pre undefined ‘tokens’ of infrastructure cost being passed to me.
I look forward to your response.
Thanks and regards
0808
Appendix 1
Anthropic‘s remora rates
Anthropic‘s remora events
The table of 9s
Tariff based availability
