G2A Pay is charging a recurring service fee for members who are inactive for over 180 days, justifying the charge because “as a supervised financial institution, we must meet many requirements related to the monitoring and servicing of each account.”
It’s worth noting that this is separate from G2A, which is known for being a digital marketplace (similar to eBay) to sell video game keys. G2A Pay is its payment service.
First noticed by a user on Reddit, they share an email detailing a service charge of €1 (~$1.14) for nearly 180 days of inactivity on their account.
According to the post, a recurring fee of €1 will be charged every month after the 180 days pass during which the user does not log in.
Indie dev Dan Marshall posted a screenshot of the email to Twitter as well, leading to others speculating as to if the inactivity fee was real or not. Turns out that it is, and appears in G2A Pay’s terms and conditions under section two, item 20.
“It costs money to upkeep accounts and if someone does not use the account, it doesn’t make sense to upkeep it,” explains G2A Pay in an official statement (which is pinned to the original Reddit post referenced above).
“We don’t require these users to buy anything, just log in at least once every 6 months, just so that we know they are still with us. As a financial institution we are also monitored, supervised, and audited and have to back up and explain all our accounts and the funds stored on these accounts,” the post continues.
“Once an account may be considered ‘abandoned’ we take certain steps to make sure we are in line with all regulations, jurisdictions and laws.”
This has lead many users are question the legality of the charge, citing gift card laws, considering how gift cards are repositories for a cash balance and can be comparable to a user’s wallet in G2A Pay.
“Account balances are not the same as gift cards. You can use a gift card to recharge the balance on your G2A account, but you can also recharge it a myriad of other ways, therefore the two are not the same,” the company responded.