Paying a registration fee to order a phone
Question
Regarding the prohibition of charging interest for the new smartphones of "Simhadrin". The question is, is there a (rabbinic) prohibition of paying a below-the-market price in advance for a product, which the seller doesn’t yet have in his possession, and there is a fixed market price for that product. Does this problem exist in the early purchase of the "Simhadrin" company's smartphones. The technical data: A. According to the company's advertizements, anyone who registers for the early purchase of the company's new cellphone will be eligible to receive the phones when they are released for the price of 292 shekels only. B. The company does not specify what the price will be for those who did not pre-order, however, according to their sales line, a phone like this or similar is currently sold in the market for about 350 shekels. But they commit to sell at the discounted price to those who pre-order. C. The pre-order includes a payment of 10 shekels. D. This amount will be deducted when the order is completed, but it will not be refunded in case of cancellation of the transaction. E. The company defines this amount as a seriousness fee. F. Therefore, there is no commitment whatsoever to the actual transaction, i.e. - the customer is entitled not to complete the purchase, only the registration fee (10 shekels) will not be refunded. In addition, there is no mention of the company's commitment to this transaction; there is only a commitment to sell for the low price if there are sales of this phone. G. The company states that the purchase is subject to the "Heiter Iska Brit Pinchas". (A Heiter Iska is document that turns a loan into an investment, thus allowing to lender to charge an interest.) My halachic questions are as follows: A. Is there a problem of usury in this (for those who are not interested in relying on the Heiter Iska). B. Can the Heiter Iska even help in this case? Factors one must weigh here are these: At first sight, this seems to be a case of making something cheaper ("Hozla"), since according to them the price is not fixed and it could go up. And also, according to them, a similar product is sold in the market at a higher price. Also, this is pre-selling something that the seller does not currently have, since currently they don’t hold this product in stock. On the one hand - it is assumed that they have a small number of these items that they brought into our country for testing. On the other hand - it is not clear whether this assumption that they have a few phone units, would serve as a reason to permit this in this case, since the interest is not on the product that they currently have, but on phones that they do not have (according to their statement). Having the product in stock does not allow when the product in only supplied later. The only transaction that’s allowed when is when one only has to wait “till my son comes”. Reasons why Heiter Iska might work in this case: A. In the case at hand, the lender does not receive anything for having made a deposit, and they are not committed to any amount of compensation if it is not possible to prove profits. B. The only thing guaranteed is the low price, and assuming that in the end the product will be sold to everyone (even to those who did not order in advance) at the low price, it will become clear that those who pre-ordered did not receive any benefit. C. There is no possibility to receive the deposit back, only when the purchase is completed, this amount will be deducted from the price of the device. Therefore, this proves that there is no transaction here.
Answer
Dear …!
In response to this matter, without getting into too many details:
Any payment in advance whose nature is a 'registration fee', and not an advance payment, is not considered interest on money that is paid in advance. There is also no prohibition of giving a discounted price to those who pay in advance.
Source
Shulchan Oruch, section Yore Deah, chapter 177