Well, the GEZ is well known for the rude and overreaching approach. The fee is similar to the UK broadcasting fee. Basically, by German law public broadcasting cannot be paid for with tax money. Hence the substantial fee. The GEZ has long argued that everyone has a TV and/or radio and thus must pay. It was up to you to proof you don't. It was enough to own one. It doesn't have to be installed. Since the public broadcasting stations started to have an internet presence and started to stream content it has been argued that anyone having a computer, smartphone, etc. will have to pay. Of course they weren't asked to provide that content. Since everyone has to pay they may as well use tax money instead of having a special agency, which spies on citizens. Lot's of money wasted, dozens of TV and radio stations, well and above the original (important!) public broadcasting mandate.

Shouldn't affect you when traveling though. However, if you use someone else's address to register a vehicle that data will be passed on to the GEZ and you may receive a letter at that address asking you to pay. Happened to me.

The law is about to change and there should be only one fee for each household, instead for everyone in the household. So even the above scenario shouldn't be a problem anymore.

The web site quoted above is a campaign to abolish the GEZ fee. So the scare mongering is no coincidence.

They proudly claim to be the most efficient "Behoerde" in the country :-)))

While most of us hate them with a passion the idea behind it was actually sound. After WWII the government was not supposed to ever have any influence over public broadcasting. Hence the fee and not the tax. In reality the boardrooms of the broadcasting companies are filled with ex politicians and there is always considerable influence :-(