Right of withdrawal, warranty, warranty with Far East traders and local customers
November 19, 2012 | 30,00 EUR | answered by Jan Wilking
Given the following scenario: A German seller acts as a business intermediary on a commission basis between Far Eastern traders who want to sell their goods (primarily electronics) and customers on major sales platforms like Amazon / Ebay. This is necessary because the intermediary does not have liquidity and cannot purchase the goods from the trader to sell them themselves.
My question now is: to what extent does the intermediary have to comply with German legal requirements such as the 14-day right of withdrawal under the Distance Selling Act, 6 months warranty, 2 years warranty period, or product liability, as the actual purchase contract is concluded between the buyers and a Chinese trader.
Dear inquirer,
I am happy to answer your inquiry taking into account the facts you have described and your commitment as follows:
In principle, these obligations, such as the 2-year warranty for new goods (a 6-month warranty is not legally required), only apply to the seller, not the pure intermediary.
The problem, however, is that on large sales platforms such as eBay, you generally act under your own name, thus becoming the contracting party yourself, see for example http://pages.ebay.de/tradingassistants/legal.html or Landgericht Berlin, judgment of October 1, 2003 - file number 18 0 117/03. This means that you are also responsible for complying with legal requirements.
I hope I have provided you with a helpful initial orientation. If you have any uncertainties, please use the free follow-up function.
Please note that within the scope of an initial consultation without knowledge of all circumstances, I cannot provide a definitive advice. If you wish for a final assessment of the situation, I recommend contacting a lawyer and discussing the situation with them after inspecting all documents.
Best regards.
