April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] A court on Sept. 28 ordered the Korean unit of Google to repay a woman half of the money her son spent on mobile game items using her credit card without her permission.

In a suit filed by the mother, the Suwon District Court found the plaintiff and defendant equally responsible for the transactions, totaling 1.81 million won (US$1,627), that a 10-year-old boy made without his mother knowing and ordered Google to pay her back 909,000 won. 

The court ruled the defendant has the responsibility to manage customers’ billing information to prevent credit cards from being used without proper authorization.

The mother filed for a lawsuit after Google refused to repay her for the bills. Her son bought the items using credit card information saved onto an in-app mobile payment tool provided by the global search engine after she bought him some game items in 2015.

“The fact that the defendant failed to verify the name of the cardholder and the person who made the transaction under a different name amounts to a violation of its duty to take caution and therefore it makes the defendant liable for the partial reimbursement,” the court said.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)