Ebay purchase because of malfunction on the phone?

On the subject of Ebay, there are now truly a lot of judgments in the German legal landscape. Therefore, I hardly mention them here. Also because I regularly represent only commercial traders on Ebay and Amazon when they receive warning letters or other claim letters. However, I found a verdict of the district court of Aschaffenburg just too funny and therefore I have to mention it once.

There, about 11 minutes after the immediate purchase of a “Rolls Royce”, the buyer claimed that he had not pressed “Buy”. This could only be due to a malfunction of his cell phone. The seller, on the other hand, was of the opinion that a valid purchase contract had been concluded.

When the buyer did not pay, the seller withdrew from the contract, the seller sold the vehicle elsewhere and claimed the reduced value in the amount of € 2,499.00 as damages against the buyer.

The Aschaffenburg Local Court sentenced the purchaser in accordance with the application. The buyer had accepted an offer of the seller to conclude a purchase contract for the vehicle via an “immediate purchase”, so that a purchase contract was concluded. The purchaser would have had to present and prove the existence of a ground for rescission. However, he only invoked a malfunction of his cell phone to the effect that the phone did not lock despite pressing the lock button. However, the district court found the buyer’s blanket denial irrelevant.

The issue of abandoned auctions is one that keeps the courts busy. Before acting rashly here, both as a buyer and a seller, you should really be sure of what you are doing. You are otherwise very quickly in a big liability!

Author: Marian Härtel

Marian Härtel ist Rechtsanwalt und Fachanwalt für IT-Recht mit einer über 25-jährigen Erfahrung als Unternehmer und Berater in den Bereichen Games, E-Sport, Blockchain, SaaS und Künstliche Intelligenz. Seine Beratungsschwerpunkte umfassen neben dem IT-Recht insbesondere das Urheberrecht, Medienrecht sowie Wettbewerbsrecht. Er betreut schwerpunktmäßig Start-ups, Agenturen und Influencer, die er in strategischen Fragen, komplexen Vertragsangelegenheiten sowie bei Investitionsprojekten begleitet. Dabei zeichnet sich seine Beratung durch einen interdisziplinären Ansatz aus, der juristische Expertise und langjährige unternehmerische Erfahrung miteinander verbindet. Ziel seiner Tätigkeit ist stets, Mandanten praxisorientierte Lösungen anzubieten und rechtlich fundierte Unterstützung bei der Umsetzung innovativer Geschäftsmodelle zu gewährleisten.