A ruling by the Federal Court saves the mother of a 13-year-old €1250. He had made significant purchases of boosters in a first-person shooter.
A 13-year-old made purchases 21 times through a “pay-to-call” service to become stronger in a game. A bill of €1250 arrived at the house. However, this does not need to be paid. A special regulation applies.
As reported by Spiegel, a boy (13) played a computer game that was initially free. In the game, which is played by millions worldwide, there is an option to purchase equipment. But that costs money – and is linked to so-called microtransactions.
Payment can be made via credit card, for example. However, the boy chose to go through a 0900 number. He paid using the so-called “Pay by call” procedure. He called the number 21 times to make his fighter stronger. Eventually, a bill of €1250 arrived at his mother’s house.
After the District Court and Regional Court, it went to the Federal Court
His mother refused to pay the bill. The billing party sued, and the case went to court.
On May 12, 2015, there was a ruling by the District Court in Delmenhorst. It ruled in favor of the lawsuit; the mother had to pay. However, she appealed against it. On June 30, 2016, a ruling by the Regional Court of Oldenburg was issued: It dismissed the appeal; she still had to pay.
Now, on Thursday, the Federal Court in Karlsruhe decided in favor of the mother. The boy did not have his mother’s authority to make these expenditures.
While there are special regulations for payment services, they did not apply here, because the activation of the equipment does not occur directly in the game but through an intermediary with the service provider.
For a sex call from the son, the parents would have to pay, but not for this
The situation would look different if the boy had called a sex hotline. In that case, the service rendered, for which payment is made by phone call, is provided directly on the phone. Here, the mother would have had to pay if her son called such a 0900 number.
We do not know which shooter this case exactly involved. However, in 2016 there was a similar case regarding FIFA:
FIFA 16: FUT – 17-year-old opens packs worth nearly €5000 – using his father’s credit card
