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Created on Tuesday, 05 May 2009 19:18

Last Updated on Friday, 28 December 2012 18:59

No Porsche for € 5.50 at eBay

LG Cologne had a curious case to decide on March 18, 2009 (re 10 O 250/08). The plaintiff sued a car seller for damages to the amount of € 75,000 on an unfulfilled sales contract on a Porsche 911 for € 5.50.

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A seller on eBay offered his Porsche 911 (date of first registration 2007 and approx. 6,000km mileage) for sale. The buyer placed his bet at the maximum of € 1,100. In the mean time, the seller noticed that a wrong price was published and immediately applied to prematurely stop the auction. As the auction was stopped, the buyer had only offered € 5.50 for the car. After the seller did not fulfill the contract, the buyer sued him for damages for € 75,000.

The court dismissed the case. Actually, everything was clear that the buyer entered a valid contract as the auction was terminated. Furthermore, the vendor would also be subject to reimbursing damages. However, the judges considered this to be a misuse of one's rights and therefore dismissed the case. The buyer could not seriously expect that the seller was really wanting to sell such expensive car for only peanuts. For this reason the buyer's demand for damages violates good faith (§242 BGB).