Essen This was decided by the Essen Regional Court in a judgment (Az.: 1 O 314/21), to which the Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (vzbv) points out as the plaintiff. The verdict is not yet final.
No consumption, but always recharge
In this case, customers were not initially forced to use a certain amount of credit in a certain time. However, they had to charge 5 euros at certain intervals so that their card would not be deactivated.
And if a maximum balance of 200 euros was reached in the end, the customers were even forced to call at least 5 euros of credit. Otherwise, no new charging and thus no extension of the activity time window would have been possible.
A case of misleading advertising
The court therefore found that the advertising statement “no minimum turnover” is misleading. It suggests that buyers of a prepaid starter set for the tariff in question do not have to make any further payments in order to be permanently reachable.
However, this is not the case, the chamber continues: on the one hand, consumers would have to pay money regardless of consumption in order to continue using the SIM card and to receive the contractual consideration. On the other hand, when you reach the maximum balance, you are also forced to use up credit in order to be able to extend the activity time window. However, this would result in a minimum turnover.
