Minors cannot establish a paid membership

A membership on a website with a minor shall only be concluded
if it is approved by his parents or subsequently (after his 18th birthday) by him.
18. birthday) is approved by him. Furthermore, fee agreements contained in an unstructured continuous text are invalid because they are surprising.

The plaintiff, who was still a minor at the time, called up a flirting site on the internet at the beginning of 2006. It contained an offer for 99 cents for a trial membership, which he accepted by entering his personal data and ticking a box. Some time later, 72 euros were debited from his account. He objected to this debit. The same game was repeated in 2007. In 2008, 72 euros were debited again. Here, however, the later plaintiff failed to object in time. Therefore, he demanded repayment of the amount from the internet operator. After all, he had not used the site. The latter invoked the membership.

The plaintiff then brought an action before the Munich District Court. The competent judge awarded him the 72 euros and also rejected the counterclaim for payment of further membership fees filed by the internet operator:

A membership had not been validly agreed. The conclusion of the contract by the plaintiff
The conclusion of the contract by the plaintiff was pendingly ineffective, since he was not yet 18 years old at that time. Since neither his parents nor he subsequently (after his 18th birthday) approved this contract, it was not effective. There was no tacit approval (e.g. through use of the portal). In addition, the membership fees had also not been validly agreed. In view of the emphasis of the price of 0.99 euro (for the "test membership") the membership fee of 72 euro hidden in the following unstructured flow text was surprising and therefore ineffective. Incidentally, this also applies to the renewal clause. This is under the point "payment and prices" and not under "contract duration and extension". For this reason, the counterclaim was also to be rejected.

The judgement is final.

Judgement of the AG Munich of 18.2.09, AZ 262 C 18519/08

 

Source: Press release of the Munich Local Court

 

Goldberg Attorneys at Law 2011

Attorney at Law Michael Ullrich, LL.M. (Information Law)

Specialist lawyer for information technology law (IT law)

E-mail: info@goldberg.de

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