German Federal Court: Bank must not reimburse authorised gambling credit card payments

Recently the German Federal Court made it clear in a published decision that banks must not reimburse authorised credit card payments for gambling activities. The only provision is that the relevant debit has been authorised by the player himself or herself. According to the German Federal Court, this authorisation, gives no reason for the decision to be revised, despite the fact, that there is a gambling ban going on. What does this judgement mean for the player?

Around a year ago, we had reported on GambleJoe, that the German Federal Court, is working on the issue, whether banks are liable for damages for casino transfers. The highest court in Germany determined in a recent decision on the 13th. September 2022 (XI ZR 515/21), that banks must not reimburse credit card payments in the gambling sector, which have been authorised by the customer himself or herself. This means that players have no possibility of asking the credit institute for a reimbursement of suffered casino losses.

Claimant is not reimbursed the 3,640 Euro

In a concrete case, the claimant had carried out transactions in an online casino amounting to 3,640 Euro with his credit card between September 2015 and November 2016. The providers were in fact illegal gambling providers from abroad. The claimant’s bank charged a fee of 104 Euro for the transactions as per its table of costs.

Now the unlucky casino player is asking for a reimbursement of the suffered casino losses including the charges imposed by the bank. The plaintiff is arguing that according to § 134 German Federal Court in connection with § 4 Paragraph 1 Sentence 2 Case 2 of the Gambling State Act 2011 (GlüStV), the credit card transactions authorised by the player were void. After the claim filed by the plaintiff failed, a second one was filed in front of the District Court of Berlin Centre. The District Court of Berlin accepted to revise the claim and the Federal Court of Justice later announced that the revision had been refused. Thus, the plaintiff has now withdrawn the revision.

The highest German judges have followed in the argument of the District Court of Berlin and refused a reimbursement claim according to § 675u Sentence 2 BGB. Just a few weeks ago we had reported about a similar case, whereby an online casino had refused a reimbursement of gambling losses despite the fact that there was a judgement.

In August of this year we had also reported about a judgement of the District Court of Wuppertal, whereby a reimbursement of casino losses was also refused. However there have been cases where players’ request for reimbursement have been accepted and the online casinos have been ordered to reimburse the losses.

Conclusion

As the Federal Court made it clear in its judgement of 13th. September 2022, the legal issue is no reason for a revision to be approved. Once the credit card payments for illegal online casinos have been authorised by the player, then the bank is not obliged to provide reimbursement. This is not only valid for the losses suffered in the casino, but also for the charges incurred as listed in the bank’s table of costs.

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