LH/M&M accrues for the miles issued and also pay taxes for the miles so the person accumulating them on work travel doesn't have to. The valuation is about 0.3 cents/mile there, so about 10 times less than in this case. Partners like DKB and Payback have contracts with M&M where the value of a mile is defined, but only when they have to true up the miles periodically and there is a shortfall on either side. LH stopped selling miles to avoid a valuation and cleared the entire process with the banking watchdog Bafin in Germany to stay clear of the e-currency topic. This lawyer is saying that it is not clear. This got quite a bit of press last week, with some finance related magazines jumping on the bandwagon.