GER: Online ‘Order Buttons’ Must Show all Charges

Jul 12, 2024 Benn-Ibler Rechtsanwälte

The German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, hereinafter BGH) has ruled on online order-buttons: In online sales, consumers must be able to see on the screen where the order button is located which services they have to pay for.

A woman had booked a flight on a travel portal. The portal allowed members of a particular streaming platform to purchase the selected flight at a reduced price. The portal offered a free trial subscription for the streaming platform. However, if the trial subscription was not cancelled within 30 days, an annual fee of EUR 79.99 would be automatically charged. The woman did not cancel the trial subscription within the 30 day period. As a result, the portal charged her for the discounted price of the flight as well as the annual subscription fee. The woman sued for a refund of the annual fee. The district court dismissed the claim, but the court of appeal found in favour of the woman, ruling that the discount on the flight should be deducted from the fee. In her appeal, which was granted by the court of appeal, the plaintiff then pursued her claim for a refund of the fee collected plus interest.

The BGH recently ruled as follows:

The contract is void. Pursuant to Section 312j (3) (2) of the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, BGB), in the case of consumer contracts in electronic legal transactions, a business is under obligation to design the order process in such a way that consumer must expressly confirm their obligation to pay at the time of this process.

If an order is placed by means of a clickable icon, such as an order button, the button must be clearly legible and must be marked with the wording ‘order with obligation to pay’ or a similar unambiguous text.

According to the BGH judges, if contracts for several services to be provided independently of each other are concluded in one single order process, the screen containing the order button must contain the express wording that the consumer has the intention to conclude all of the contracts by pressing the order button.

BGH X ZR 81/23 (4 June 2024)