Mainichi: Court rules man not liable for son's credit card spending on adult pay site
A credit card company's demand for payment from a man whose son secretly used his card to access adult pay sites has been rejected in a court ruling here. In handing down the ruling at the Sasebo branch of the Nagasaki District Court, Judge Akihiko Takemura said the credit card company had not made every effort to prevent illicit use of the card...The ruling is likely to have an impact on payment over the Internet, as online identification methods often do not require personal identification numbers. The ruling, dated April 24, said that the then 19-year-old son of the cardholder visited adult pay sites with his cell phone several times...and used his father's credit card to pay the bill of approximately 2.85 million yen...It emerged that his son had taken his card out of his wallet while he was sleeping, and copied down the details. The card company said that the father was at fault by not properly looking after his card and demanded he pay the amount. However, the father said he was not told beforehand that it was possible to make payments over the Internet without a personal identification number, and refused to pay...During the case, the judge pointed out that when payment was made over the Internet there had been no need to input a PIN or other information to confirm the identity of the user..."The company did not have in place methods to prevent, to the greatest degree possible, illicit use by people other than cardholders, and it must be said that its actions were insufficient," the judge said...more...
