An Elementary Student Who Purchased Game Items Worth 4.26 Million KRW Using Parent's Phone... Apple Says "No Refund"

An elementary school student purchased game items worth 4.26 million KRW using a mobile phone registered under their parent's name, and Apple has stated that a refund is not possible. The photo is unrelated to any specific expressions in this article. [Image source=Pixabay]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] It has been reported that Apple has taken a stance of no refund regarding an elementary school student who purchased game items worth 4.26 million KRW using a mobile phone registered under their parents' name.

According to a Yonhap News report on the 1st, Mr. A, who has a child in the 6th grade of elementary school, was surprised when he received a notification that his credit card usage limit had been exceeded and checked the payment details.

It turned out that the incident was caused by his child who had borrowed his iPhone. Mr. A's child purchased game items worth approximately 4.26 million KRW over 17 days on the Apple App Store without parental consent.

Mr. A immediately requested a refund from Apple. However, Apple refunded only about 310,000 KRW and responded that the remaining 3.95 million KRW could not be refunded.

During this process, Mr. A stated that Apple did not provide a specific explanation for the refusal of the refund and requested mediation from the Content Dispute Mediation Committee. He also submitted documents including a family relation certificate showing himself and his child, and payment statements proving that there had been no previous game-related purchases.

However, Yonhap News reported that mediation was not achieved as Apple maintained its stance of no additional refunds. Apple explains on its website that refund procedures can be found there and provides general processing guidelines, but notes that whether a full refund is granted depends on each case.

According to civil law, if a minor enters into a contract without the consent of a legal representative, the contract can be canceled. However, due to the nature of online transactions, it is often difficult to prove that the contracting party is a minor, making payment cancellations frequently impossible.

Furthermore, according to the Content Dispute Mediation Committee, Article 18 of the Standard Terms and Conditions for Online Games states that parental or legal guardian consent must be obtained when a minor member makes a payment. However, it does not regulate cases where a child makes payments using a parent's mobile phone. This can be interpreted as meaning that payments made from a mobile phone registered under a parent's name cannot be canceled.

In fact, the two major app markets, Google Play Store and Apple App Store, provide procedures for refund requests when it is confirmed that someone other than the account holder, such as a minor child, made the payment. However, they do not disclose specific criteria for making such judgments.

Meanwhile, there was also a case where an elementary school student, Ms. B, secretly donated 130 million KRW of her parents' jeonse deposit to a personal internet broadcaster. In November 2020, Ms. B secretly used her parents' mobile phone to make donation payments totaling 130 million KRW to a personal internet broadcaster. The money her parents had saved for their jeonse deposit was quickly withdrawn from the account linked to the mobile phone.

At that time, due to insufficient regulations protecting users of personal internet broadcasts, refunding the donation was difficult. However, with persuasion from the regulatory body, the Korea Communications Commission, the refund was completed within three days.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.