The Koblenz Regional Court has overturned several arrest warrants in the case concerning alleged subscription and credit card fraud (“Operation Chargeback”). Nine suspects have since been remand in custody released. The criminal division identified formal and substantive shortcomings in the indictment and returned the case files to the Koblenz Public Prosecutor General’s Office for further work. According to sources in judicial and media circles, the decision is dated 30 October 2026.
The judges criticised the indictment for classifying the alleged offences primarily as computer fraud or attempted computer fraud without sufficiently specifying the necessary acts and time periods. Further investigation and reasoning are required before a decision can be made on whether to open a full trial. The Koblenz Public Prosecutor General’s Office said it would take legal action against the lifting of the arrest warrants and address the points criticised.
The case came to public attention in November 2025 as Operation Chargeback. The State Central Office for Cybercrime at the Koblenz Public Prosecutor General’s Office coordinated searches and arrests in several countries with Bundeskriminalamt, Eurojust and Europol . According to authorities at the time, more than four million cardholders were allegedly affected by a system of fake subscriptions between 2016 and 2021. Around 19 million subscriptions were allegedly obtained through professionally designed fraudulent websites; the suspected losses were put at more than €300 million .
The current lifting of the arrest warrants concerns the grounds for detention and the reasoning behind the indictment, not the validity of the investigations conducted so far or the securing of possible assets. Civil claims for repayment are unaffected. The indictment must now be improved by providing a fuller account of the facts and legal assessment before a decision can be made on whether to admit it.
For those affected and payment service providers, it remains unclear for now when a possible trial might begin and whether further reversals of transactions will follow. What is clear is that the Koblenz Regional Court’s decision does not alter the investigating authorities’ task of proving the offences and clarifying the structures of a network suspected of operating internationally. The Koblenz Public Prosecutor General’s Office says it intends to provide an update on its next steps shortly.
The case is significant beyond Rhineland-Palatinate because payment flows and data processing are alleged to have been organised across borders. The role of banks and payment service providers, particularly in relation to verification and reporting obligations, is likely to come under scrutiny again in further proceedings. It will only be possible to assess the prospects of a criminal case after the additional investigations ordered have been completed.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).