No minimum spend: When the cellular plan is misleading

Prepaid tariffs for smartphones have many advantages: full cost control, no minimum turnover, no monthly fee.

No minimum spend: When the cellular plan is misleading

Prepaid tariffs for smartphones have many advantages: full cost control, no minimum turnover, no monthly fee. At least that's what the advertising says. A judgment makes it clear that this is not always the case and that such claims are not correct.

Prepaid tariffs can be very useful for smartphone owners. For example, there are no nasty surprises in the form of high mobile phone bills, since only previously charged credit can be used. In addition, use without a minimum turnover is usually promised.

Promised? Yes, but not always held by the mobile operator. For example, Medion AG advertises Alditalk's "basic prepaid tariff" on the Internet with the claim "no minimum sales". This tariff is characterized by the fact that once the SIM card has been activated, the initial credit can initially only be used within an activity window of twelve months.

After the time window has expired, consumers can still be reached on their cell phones for two months. After that, your SIM card will be deactivated. In order to be able to keep making phone calls and remain reachable, they have to extend their activity window by topping up new credit again and again. For example, if you pay the minimum top-up amount of five euros, the time window is extended by four months. After that, it needs to be recharged. What then is nothing more than a minimum turnover required for the use of the SIM card - which, according to Internet advertising, allegedly does not exist, consumer advocates are angry.

As a result, Medion AG, for example, is no longer allowed to advertise the Alditalk brand's prepaid basic tariff by saying that no minimum sales are required. This was decided by the Essen Regional Court (Az.: 1 O 314/21) in a judgment that is not yet final. The Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV) had criticized that the advertising statement was not correct and was therefore misleading.

The LG agreed with the VZBV that the claim "no minimum sales" is misleading for consumers. Because the advertising statement suggests that consumers do not have to make any further payments after purchasing the starter set in order to be permanently available via their mobile phone. However, this is not the case.