OLG Munich: Additional fees for PayPal and instant transfer allowed

In a procedure of the Competition Centre, the OLG Munich has allowed the calculation of payment fees both when using the payment service “Immediate Transfer” and when paying by Means of PayPal. The OLG Munich has allowed the appeal to the Federal Court of Justice.

The Munich Regional Court had assessed the legal issues differently(see this article). Since 13.01.2018, the new rules have been in force, prohibiting merchants from charging additional fees for the most common payment options. In the case of instant transfer, the hitherto unanimous view was that this payment option falls under the new legal regulation, because it is a simple SEPA transfer, which is explicitly mentioned in the law. When paying by PayPal, this is controversial due to some rather unclear indications in the deliberations of the law.

The Higher Regional Court of Munich takes the view that the German legislature did not want to cover both the instant transfer and PayPal by Paragraph 270a of the German Civil Code (BGB). According to the OLG, the new standard should not be applied analogously to these two payment methods. The reason: For both Paypal and the immediate transfer, there is no direct SEPA transfer or SEPA direct debit from the end customer to the seller. Instead, a third company is involved. In addition, payment by immediate transfer with the credit check offers advantages which the consumer can and would like to pay if he chooses this route. The OLG has therefore dismissed the action brought by the Competition Centre.

So it remains exciting and it remains to be seen how exactly the Federal Court of Justice positions itself.