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Otto Limacher says to Blick: “I showed a friend how to go online with a cell phone and look at naked women.”
BeatMichelreporter
Pensioner Otto Limacher (75) is angry. He says to Blick: “I showed a colleague how to get on the internet with a cell phone. Then he also wanted to know how to watch sex films for free. I showed it to him on my phone, which must have been a mistake. Now I’m sitting in the Obligo porn trap!” Limacher is not alone: the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) and the French consumer protection organization FRC have been trying to put a stop to the obligation scam since 2014 – without success.
He no longer remembers exactly what the Kriens pensioner clicked on on his cell phone. He is certain that in November 2021 he supposedly selected a free trial subscription for 72 hours from the Romanian-based site Swissxtube.com. And: He didn’t read the long list of terms and conditions carefully.
The phone trick
After three days he got a call from Obligo AG. The subscription is now activated. “I denied that immediately,” says Otto Limacher. A month later, the first demand for 149 francs comes. From then on, reminders and additional fees followed.
Otto Limacher writes a letter to Obligo four times, stating that he has not purchased any paid services. Result: The invoices suddenly come from a debt collection service and legal action is threatened. In the meantime, the debt has grown to 544 francs. Otto Limacher does not intend to pay. “I’ll take a chance,” he says combatively.
Limacher is one of many
There are dozens of men in the same situation. In the court proceedings in September 2022, a total of 40 private plaintiffs sued the two owners of the Obligo company. Also on board as plaintiffs: Seco and the French FRC. But: In a first instance, they lost the process before the March District Court.
The owner and board member Fritz-Emil Müller* (75) was acquitted of the charge of unfair competition. His partner († 48) died two months before the trial. Both the Seco and the FRC are taking the proceedings to the Schwyz cantonal court.
As can be read in the 88-page judgment, the indictment accuses Obligo of “the fact that the ordering process is misleading because it is not clear to the consumer that with the corresponding clicks he will automatically conclude a paid subscription if he does not do so within three days quits». Obligo takes on the task of billing various porn portals.
Hearing suspended due to “complexity”.
As early as June 2014, Seco and FRC filed criminal charges against those responsible for Paypay, Obligo’s predecessor. There were also constant ads from private individuals. Years of legal wrangling followed. A hearing was suspended in February 2021 “because of the large number and complexity of the preliminary issues”.
In September 2022, the March District Court finally came to trial. The three-way court dismissed the accusers. For the judge and the two judges, one reason for the acquittal is that those responsible asked Seco several times what could be done better in the ordering process, but received no answer. In addition, the criminal law relevance had already been denied in advance by several law enforcement authorities through cessation orders.
Blick spoke to Fritz-Emil Müller, the head of Obligo. The Berner, an experienced lawyer who does not want to be recognized, sees himself confirmed in the acquittal: “It’s been a years of boiler-making against me and my deceased business partner. I suffer a lot from it, we are insulted and publicly denounced on the Internet. »
Another 15 years?
Müller says with certainty: “No one can say they believed the service was free. We checked with private prosecutors how they consumed, you can understand everything. They all consumed heavily. Nothing like: ‹I only clicked once, then suddenly I had a subscription.›»
He is certain: “The Seco will probably take its point of view to the Federal Court and represent it – nota bene at the expense of the taxpayer. That could easily take another 15 years.” Until then, many users will probably fall into the porn trap.
Unwanted invoices from commitments: This is what Seco recommends
Anyone who suddenly receives an invoice from Obligo without having consciously taken out a paid subscription can file a complaint or a criminal complaint with the public prosecutor’s office of the canton of Schwyz or at the police station in their place of residence. The not yet final acquittal of the March District Court does not change anything, writes the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) on request from Blick. It is then the task of the public prosecutor’s office of the canton of Schwyz to assess what legal consequences they want to give to the new criminal complaints. A lawsuit can make sense. “A contract can only be validly concluded if there is consensus. Furthermore, it can be asserted that any contract that has been concluded is contested due to error and is therefore not binding,” says Seco. Whether a lawsuit is ultimately successful depends on the court.
This is what a liability invoice looks like when it has already been handed over to the collection agency.
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Anyone who suddenly receives an invoice from Obligo without having consciously taken out a paid subscription can file a complaint or a criminal complaint with the public prosecutor’s office of the canton of Schwyz or at the police station in their place of residence. The not yet final acquittal of the March District Court does not change anything, writes the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) on request from Blick. It is then the task of the public prosecutor’s office of the canton of Schwyz to assess what legal consequences they want to give to the new criminal complaints. A lawsuit can make sense. “A contract can only be validly concluded if there is consensus. Furthermore, it can be asserted that any contract that has been concluded is contested due to error and is therefore not binding,” says Seco. Whether a lawsuit is ultimately successful depends on the court.