I think that's the idea if you read the article, the 12 eur is the minimum spend on coffee

>> “Planning to stay and work? Great! A minimum spend of €12 every three hours keeps the Wi‑Fi flowing.”

You might be right. I read that as a minimum spend on wifi originally.

How much do you think you'd have to pay for 3h WiFi in an actual coworking space?

Never worked from one in my life but google tells me £25/day for Regus in my area.

Great then, if people are unhappy with having great coffee and WiFi for virtually the same price as a cowork, I think they can always default to just going to a coworking space and leave his place empty for an actual paying customer in the café.