Ask a lawyer on the topic of Contract law

Directory Entry Branchenbuch24

November 17, 2009 | 20,00 EUR | answered by Andreas Scholz

My wife listed her nail studio for free on Branchenbuch 24 on the internet. Last week, an employee of Branchenbuch24 called her and said he needed to verify the data. At the same time, he mentioned that the free contract was expiring and offered a new one for 36 months at €12 each. My wife was completely caught off guard and agreed. After a few minutes, another employee called to confirm this again, mentioning that everything would be recorded. My wife had absolutely no time to think it over carefully because the second call came right after the first. Now, 3 days later, we received a bill for €530 from the company Weinert Verlag. On the back of the bill, the terms and conditions were listed, which excluded the right of withdrawal for business owners and referred to §13 BGB.

My questions:

Is this contract valid?
Do business owners have a right of withdrawal?
If we had seen the terms and conditions beforehand, my wife would never have agreed to such a contract.
My wife does this on the side and is self-employed as a small business owner.
What can I do to reverse this?
We have not paid yet.

Best regards, Löffler

Andreas Scholz

Dear inquirer,

A contract can be concluded verbally, therefore also over the phone.

The contract for the entry is to be attributed to the commercial activity of your wife. Therefore, she acted as an entrepreneur according to § 14 BGB. For this reason, she does not have a right of withdrawal according to §§ 312, 312b BGB.

For this reason, your wife is also bound by the contract.

I regret to inform you that I cannot provide any other information here. If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask.

Kind regards,

Andreas Scholz, Attorney