In one sentence
Unlocking a mandate referred through the platform no longer charges any balance and writes no billing line — referred mandates are free, permanently; you pay only for the tool, never for the referral.
What has changed
Until now, unlocking a referred mandate cost a flat five euros from the firm’s balance. That charge has been dropped without replacement. The price returned is zero, no balance is deducted any more, and no billing line arises. Everything else about the unlocking remains unchanged — all the safeguards continue to apply, only the sum of money falls away.
Why the refund has disappeared without replacement
Part of the old mechanism was a refund function for the case where an unlocked mandate turned out to be unusable. Without a charge, all it can report is that there is nothing to refund. A button that can permanently do nothing is worse than none: it raises an expectation the system can no longer meet. It has therefore been removed rather than left standing as a dummy.
An honest interim position
At the time of the changeover there were zero referred mandates and zero bookings in the system. Not a cent was ever charged for it. That is not a success story — it is the reason the changeover was possible without a transitional arrangement and without unwinding anything. We consider it more sustainable to say so openly than to stage a pricing decision as a concession that would have cost nobody anything.
A side finding that belongs here
While tidying up, it became apparent that the publicly readable list of lawyers carried the amount a firm pays per mandate as a field of its own — publicly retrievable. For a pricing model that no longer exists that would have made no sense in any event; independently of that, such a value does not belong in a public list. The field is gone. A pricing decision is only carried through once it has arrived in the data layer as well.
Why free
The marketplace was important before the lawyer portal with its agents existed. In the meantime its value no longer lies in a referral fee, but in the connection: consumers who reach a limit on the platform should be able to reach a law firm — that is the implementation of our own rule that there has to be a route to a lawyer when things become too complicated. Putting a price on that route would have narrowed it precisely where it is needed.
The rule is therefore: referred mandates are free — permanently. You pay only for the tool, never for the referral. And just as clearly: you do not have to use it — the portal works for your own mandates independently of it. It is entirely in order to use the lawyer portal exclusively for mandates you have won yourself; the marketplace is an additional channel, not a component of the subscription.
A correction on our own account
Older articles and page texts still describe the earlier pay-per-mandate model. To that extent they are out of date. Where we come across such places, we bring them up to date; if you notice one, do let us know via contact.
What this expressly does not mean
Free is a statement about price, not about quantity. The channel only starts with the public announcement of the platform, and this article expressly does not promise you how many inquiries will reach you — it describes what it costs when one arrives. There is no assurance as to the number, quality, area of law or region of inquiries, no exclusivity and no guarantee of allocation.
Everything under professional conduct law likewise remains untouched: whether you accept a mandate, the check for conflicting interests and every fee agreement lie entirely with you. The platform establishes the contact and provides no legal service — how we draw that line is set out under RDG limits.
