Can you enter into a contract if you’re under 18?

The Consumer Agency refers to the Parental Code’s rules that minors cannot enter into agreements, but there is no legal case that fully supports their claim. With that interpretation of the Parental Code, a person under eighteen would never be able to buy anything without a guardian’s consent, except for the money a person over sixteen has earned through their own work. In other words, it must be remembered that in practice there are a number of exceptions to the rules of the Parental Code.

Regarding premium rate services, it is also the case that it is precisely the subscription holder who is responsible, and to get a subscription, one must be of legal age. It is possible to stipulate in law or contract that a certain person is always responsible for something being used in a certain way. An example is that a car owner is always responsible for any parking fines regardless of who used the car. Another example is the provisions in telephone subscription agreements according to which the person who holds the subscription is responsible for the phone charges regardless of who made the calls. That this is the case has been established by the National Board for Consumer Disputes (ARN) in a decision in 2005.

However, ARN has in several decisions in recent years concluded that various internet communities have entered into agreements with minors in violation of the aforementioned rules, which is why the responsible companies have been urged to refund the costs charged to the minor’s parents’ subscription. If your minor child, or another minor person, has used a phone subscription, your broadband, or your TV service that you are responsible for and purchased premium rate services or, for example, rented movies without your permission, you can make a report to us. We can then help you contact the responsible company and try to sort out what has happened. In the vast majority of cases we have handled, where minors have purchased premium rate services without permission, the company has chosen to refund.