Parship: EU court sets limits on withdrawal fees

A Parship customer withdrew from a one-year subscription after four days and was charged €392.96. The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that compensation should generally be proportionate to the time the customer actually used the service.

What happened

A woman bought a 12-month premium membership from Parship for €523.95. She exercised her right of withdrawal after four days. PE Digital, the company behind Parship, nevertheless demanded €392.96 for services already provided. The woman went to the Hamburg District Court to get her money back. The court referred the question to the Court of Justice of the European Union. The court said that the amount should generally be calculated in proportion to the time the service had been used. An exception may apply if a service has its own expressly agreed price and is fully provided at the outset. The agreement in this case had no such separate price.

What is documented

• The Court of Justice of the European Union’s judgment gives the amount demanded and establishes the principle of time-proportionate compensation.
• The German consumer organisation vzbv explains in a separate analysis the exception for separately priced initial services.

What has not been established

• The sources do not say how much the customer ultimately got back.
• The judgment interpreted the rules. The outcome of the subsequent German proceedings has not been verified.

What this means for you

1. If you withdraw from a subscription, compare the fee with how long you actually used the service.
2. Check whether a purported ‘initial service’ has its own agreed price in the contract.
3. Do not accept a large start-up fee that is not listed as a separate price in the agreement.