2.5 year old in a HBB

I am hoping someone can help me. Idk if this is allowed or not. On the Besafe Germany FB page they posted about how the newest seat can even fit in tiny cars.
Anyway, someone posted a picture of their Fiat 500 wiht a high back booster eating the front seat and stating that a rf seat would never fit in their car...
In short they have a 2.5 year old who weighs 17 kg in the HBB. The person has contacted besafe and besafe said in the email (she messaged me the email) "as long as the chikd is over 18kg, it is the safest seat". I find this to be horrible advice. The child is not over 18kg. The child is only 2.5, the seats instructions say for children4-12 years old.
Can anyone help me on this? Anyone here speak German and can find articles in German about it? Am I overreacting, is it ok for a 2.5 year old to be in a HBB?
Thanks!

Which booster is it? Although the age ranges for these ( http://www.besafe.de/autokindersitz-produkte/autokindersitz-15-36-kg) start at 4 years, the minimum weight is 15kg. And in Europe it isn't unusual for car seats to be placed in the front passenger seat.

(When my husband took our littlest to Europe with him a couple of months ago, I was livid to learn - after the fact - that our very expensive German combination seat had been returned to us in booster mode, no harness to be found, and he used it that was for our little guy! To his credit, he did weigh our little one, who just *barely* made the weight requirement, but I'm nevertheless ticked off that the harness has gone missing!)

Am I overreacting, is it ok for a 2.5 year old to be in a HBB?

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You are not overreacting. A 2.5 year old in a high back booster is horrible and should never happen. It's a complete disaster waiting to happen. A child is not mature enough at this age and very likely is also too short for a good belt placement across the chest.

A child at 2.5 years should sit rear facing for at least another year. Can you please tell us more about the seat? A child sitting forward facing at 2.5 years is a disaster but if it absolutely must happen then a forward facing seat with harness is a far better option.

Habits in Germany are unfortunately to turn kids forward facing at a very young age and it's very common to see 12 month olds kids in forward facing seats. It sounds very strange that Besafe would say a high back booster at 2.5 years is safe but I guess it's possible. The answer from Besafe in the Nordic countries would be very different and rear facing would be recommended.

A high back booster can be used for children 15-36 kg but the minimum age limit is usually three years. This would be the minimum age but is in reality a very poor child for a three year old.

The front passenger seat is a great place for a child, rear or forward facing, as long as airbag is deactivated. If airbag is active a child should never sit in the front seat. If the airbag is off we have lots of great rear facing seats fitting in the front passenger seat. If we look at all factors the front passenger seat is actually the safest place in the car and highly recommended by car manufacturers (Source: Svenska rekommendationer för små barn i bil, 2006) Here we find manufacturers such as BMW, Audi, VW, Volvo, Skoda, Hyundai, Peugeot, GM, Renault, Kia, Toyota, etc.

We have plenty of car seats fitting well in the front seat of a Fiat 500 and also compact ones such as Klippan Triofix/Triofix Recline or Britax Hi-Way fitting ok in the rear seat even though the car is small.