FlyinFlynn Posted March 27, 2023 Share Posted March 27, 2023 Interesting article in Wales Online today, a UK pensioner ordered to pay £12,000 by a German court after he cancelled an eBay auction.... UK pensioner ordered to pay £12k by German court after he cancelled eBay auction (msn.com) Food for thought indeed! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon H Posted March 27, 2023 Share Posted March 27, 2023 Sounds like the buyer knew of this loophole and decided to make a buck. Its just another reason not to use ebay by the look of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel R Posted March 27, 2023 Share Posted March 27, 2023 I'm struggling to see how there was any kind of contract in place before the auction finished, key point being, the auction hadn't finished. Any law that states you have a contract before that seems kind of broken. Also, and this is quite weird, the Rome 1 Regulation seems to say. Quote a contract for the sale of goods by auction shall be governed by the law of the country where the auction takes place; so I'm really not seeing how Quote court in Germany, which ruled that EU law overrode eBay procedures Besides, consider: auction finishes man sends tape recorder buyer finds it broken, demands refund buyer returns tape recorder man sends refund (or possibly doesn't, if he fancies arguing the toss about whether it was already broken or not) How's that materially different to ending the auction early because tape recorder broken thoroughly pointless exchanges of tape recorder and money avoided Something smells fishy about this whole thing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zflyer Posted March 27, 2023 Share Posted March 27, 2023 God bless the EU . 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Fry Posted March 27, 2023 Share Posted March 27, 2023 Just bear in mind, a pilot locked his boss out of the cabin, and preceded to hit a hillside, planeful of people, no survivors. His doctor, knowing he was a severe suicide risk, knowing his profession, was forbidden under their privacy laws from telling the Transport Pilots licensing people. German Law mind. Not EU law, not EU law in either case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zflyer Posted March 27, 2023 Share Posted March 27, 2023 German law has jursitiction here in UK. That would be the Rome Agreement then. The same agreement that allows pursuit of traffic offences i wo der. Must look that one up. Thank you for pointing out the none EU involvement Don. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Fry Posted March 27, 2023 Share Posted March 27, 2023 Z Flyer, not so. Germany has laws, UK has laws, France has laws. The 2 instances quoted German laws, note very well, German law. The oddity, for students of history, evolve from the post war state’s desire to de naziyfy society. Nothing, nowt, naza, to do with EU law. ie not EU. Look to the German legislators, for idiocy. Not British law. Is that clear enough? To be clear, these are German Laws, enforceable in Germany. 2 foot over the centre of the Rhine, in France, get lost. Not EU law. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyinFlynn Posted March 27, 2023 Author Share Posted March 27, 2023 7 hours ago, Nigel R said: I'm struggling to see how there was any kind of contract in place before the auction finished, key point being, the auction hadn't finished. Any law that states you have a contract before that seems kind of broken. Also, and this is quite weird, the Rome 1 Regulation seems to say. so I'm really not seeing how The court is saying that the contract is formed when the bid is placed on the offered item, not at the conclusion of the auction. I know, it's balmy because as soon as you are outbid your contract is nullified! Common sense would tend to demand the contract is only formed at the conclusion of the auction...but we are dealing with foreigners here! AFAICS, if this is indeed legal then surely the only course open to sellers is get a third party who is not going to sue you to place an outrageous bid before you cancel the auction. I really hope we get to hear about the resolution of this case...but I'm not going to hold my breath! I think, if I were this UK pensioner, I wouldn't be looking to take a Rhine river cruise anytime soon. Maybe it is just my British sense of fair play but I hope he doesn't pay the fine. As Jon says, another reason not to sell on eBay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Walby Posted March 27, 2023 Share Posted March 27, 2023 The article mentions the seller ignored the buyers requests and then knew he was going to court...Surely you would just offer the equipment to the buyer and state its damaged or at worse settle out of court....Only winners of going to court are the legal people, irrespective of which counter you are in IMHO. As said above "fishy" as I don't think all the facts are available to us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zflyer Posted March 27, 2023 Share Posted March 27, 2023 Don I think you missed the point. German law is German Law. Its penalties become enforceable in the UK otherwise the Baliffs would have no standing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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