[andrewcamel]

Are tariffs already in place or is this just a thinly-veiled scapegoat for haircutting traffic allocation by 95%? To a customer, it certainly feels like a bait and switch to sell a subscription product and once customers are embedded materially change the economic trade.

[jsnell]

It's the language barrier. The German word Tarif doesn't mean the same as the English word tariff.

[sokoloff]

It's also used in that sense in English (in telecom/utilities, airlines, etc.), just that the political/taxation usage is more heavily covered, especially lately.

[rob74]

Well actually one meaning of the English word tariff is the same as the German meaning, although it's not as widely used. To quote Wiktionary:

> tariff (plural tariffs)

1. A system of government-imposed duties levied on imported or exported goods; a list of such duties, or the duties themselves.

2. A schedule of rates, fees or prices.

3. (British) A sentence determined according to a scale of standard penalties for certain categories of crime.

...so Hetzner's usage of the word is technically correct™, even though native speakers might not use it in this context.

[tyrfing]

It's closer to industry jargon at this point in American English. Search for LTL tariffs, for example, and you'll find a very long list of trucking companies publishing their fees and terms as tariffs.

[Symbiote]

It's completely normal usage in Britain.

"I changed electricity provider to one with an EV tariff."

[locallost]

Yes, that's really funny. But even funnier, I can't think of a 1-1 English word, and even Google translate gives me tariff. It's actually just "price", but in the context of these kinds of services, could be also something like "tier" (but not to be confused with the German Tier :-)).

[ghaff]

I’m not sure the meanings are really different. It’s just that tariff usually refers to import duties in the US.

People arguing that’s the only US meaning are just wrong though

[locallost]

But that's normal for languages, the meaning of a word can adjust to the point a meaning previously used becomes archaic. It's obvious these two words share the same for lack of a better word gist, but the actual usage diverged later.

[namibj]

No, it's not just price, the entire structure of pricing changed.

[locallost]

I meant the German word is price, sorry for being unclear.

[llm_nerd]

This has nothing to do with any possible trade wars or trade tariffs.

The word tariff is often used in telecom to indicate rates and fees for some given quantity of services, and that seems to be the use here.

[sva_]

By tariff they just mean contract pricing, not the tax kind.