He is absolutely new to bitcoin, and he has never before used any of his devices or ids for registering on bitcointalk before. So why is he seeing this?
If this is true then he shouldn't be facing any issues. Is he using some sort of a proxy to access the site or a vpn? It could be that all those such IPs are flagged.
If you're sure he's using a unique IP that's never before been used you can try take it up with someone but as others have said 'just pay the fee'. It's not worth the hassle for such a small amount.