Pokémon Home and EU distance selling regulations

Question

I accidentally signed up for Pokémon Home, a subscription service allowing Pokémon to be stored in the cloud, using an incorrect Nintendo account. This essentially renders the service useless to me at this time.

The FAQ for Pokémon Home states: "Unfortunately, we are unable to offer refunds for a Pokémon HOME subscription for any reason." Pokémon Home FAQ

Q1: Is this against EU distance selling regulations? Can I still claim a refund?

From the guidance on witch.co.uk, an exclusion to the regulations is applied for "contracts for services where you agreed to the service starting before the seven working days has expired - as long as the seller has provided all the information detailed above." I'm not sure what information they refer to, does this invalidate my case for a refund?

I have lodged a question with Pokémon Home support, requesting a refund based on the distance selling regulations, but after 36 hours I haven't received a reply yet.

Q2: If I request a refund within seven days, but the seller does not respond, what are my rights?

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

This is indeed against EU distance selling regulations. As a digital service, this is not subject to any of the named exceptions. You have the right to cancel the service, even without stating a reason.

There is indeed an exception for contracts that have started at your explicit request. The "explicit" is important. This cannot be an implied request or a FAQ entry. Typically a service provider will have you tick an explicit box stating that you want the service commences immediately, and that you understand that you waive your right to cancel the service.

The Distance Selling Regulations require that the seller provides a lot of information up front, such as their business identity, contact details, Terms of Service, etcetera. It's likely that Nintendo's lawyers ticked all the boxes here.

You've waited 36 hours, but legally Nintendo has 30 days. After that the easiest way would be to get a credit card chargeback, but if you paid by other means you'll need to pursue legal action.

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N.B. You've quoted a British site but tagged it as European-Union. The general EU rule is 14 days for you to cancel, not 7. But that doesn't matter since you've made the request in time.