If You've Been Cheated When Ordering Online in Germany, a Lawyer Can Help

"Our commerce is a sickly maiden as it is,

not to be frightened

or driven to despair by severity, but encouraged with kindness."

Peter the Great

Trade in every kind of goods is moving more and more online: we buy clothes, toys, office equipment and groceries over the internet. Ordering various kinds of industrial equipment online is likewise far from an exception. Today you can buy all sorts of machines, units, racks, tools and spare parts without ever leaving your office chair. It is enough to browse the catalogue on a specialist website, select the item numbers you need, and pay for the order. It is this last step, in fact, that most often gives customers pause: what if we make full advance payment and then don't get what we wanted — or don't even receive the order at all? It is no secret that a buyer may run into dishonest sellers (unfortunately, online fraud is a fairly widespread phenomenon) and end up either with goods of poor quality (in plain terms, a fake or a defective item), or find a used, worn-out tool in the parcel instead of a new one — or, in the worst case, pay and receive nothing at all.

A situation can also arise where a buyer tries to make a purchase from a reputable online shop that, according to other customers' reviews, has only a good reputation. When it comes to the payment stage, the funds in the customer's account are blocked, and the shop cancels the order — because, for example, it does not accept foreign bank cards. As a result, the buyer neither receives the goods nor has access to their money for a while, since releasing blocked funds (cancelling the authorisation) can take up to 30 days at some banks. If the purchase was for a significant sum, there is little that is pleasant about such a situation. Naturally, experienced buyers find out as much as they can in advance about any online shop they plan to order from, and try to minimise their financial risk. Large companies most often rely on suppliers they have used and trusted for years, and only use the services of other trading partners for genuinely compelling economic reasons. This same principle had been applied successfully by Mikhail (name changed), a client of our law firm and the commercial director of a company that owns a chain of clothing stores.

The problem arose rather unexpectedly, at a time when the company was working hard to prepare for the opening of two clothing stores for new youth fashion brands. Premises for this purpose had already been leased and renovated, and the grand opening was planned for a few months later. All that remained was to purchase equipment for the stores and bring in the necessary merchandise. To order the equipment for the sales floors quickly, Mikhail decided to use the services of a trusted online supplier. He filled in the necessary order forms on the company's website. After receiving confirmation by email from the online shop, he arranged for full payment for the goods, including the cost of delivery, and expected to receive the large order within 6-8 working days. This time, however, within a week it had already become clear that "something had gone wrong." Representatives of the online shop stopped responding, and on the phone they gave vague answers saying that the delivery was being delayed by a few days for some technical reason. Time passed, and there was no more certainty that the badly needed equipment would arrive on time. Three weeks after placing the order, Mikhail wrote an email to the company's manager asking him to state the actual delivery date, and noted in the letter that, if the order was not delivered immediately, he would be forced to terminate the contract early and demand a refund. A reply came from the supplier that same day, promising that the goods would definitely be delivered within the following week. When that deadline also passed, our future client's patience finally ran out, and he turned to our firm for legal help in resolving the conflict that had arisen. The client's main goal was to obtain either the equipment he had previously ordered, or the money he had paid for it, together with appropriate compensation.

Our firm's attorney, who specialises in resolving civil-law disputes, immediately got to work and reviewed all the documents the client had provided, as well as the email correspondence. In this case it was clear that the parties had concluded a contract of sale through conclusive conduct. Specifically, by completing a special order form on the website, Mikhail had sent a proposal to conclude a contract (an offer), and the online shop had accepted this proposal by issuing the corresponding invoice and sending it to the customer for payment (acceptance). The attorney's task in this case was either to compel the counterparty to perform the contract by the stated deadline, or to terminate the contract with a demand for the return of the money already paid for the goods and appropriate compensation for the harm caused by this non-performance.

Under the rules of civil law in force in Germany, termination of a contract at one party's request is permissible on the following grounds:

- where a condition specified in the contract occurs that entitles one of the parties either to withdraw from the contract unilaterally, or to treat it as terminated;

- in cases provided for by statute, other than non-performance or improper performance;

- where one party to the contract fails to perform, or improperly performs, its contractual obligations.

It should be noted here that our client, Mikhail, had, as mentioned earlier, already sent the supplier that had failed to perform a letter of complaint by email. That letter, however, had not stated a deadline for performance of the contract after which the customer would consider it appropriate to terminate it. The attorney therefore prepared a detailed demand letter setting out the full sequence of the contractual relationship between the parties, the promised delivery dates for the store equipment, and the grounds on which non-performance of the contract by the online shop could be established. In this demand letter, the attorney set a ten-day period within which our client expected the contract to be performed, failing which the contract would be terminated unilaterally. After receiving this letter, the counterparty who had failed to perform replied in writing that the equipment was already in transit and would be received by our client within three working days.

Naturally, our attorney's work does not end at this stage. We will, of course, "keep our finger on the pulse" of events and monitor whether the contract is actually performed by the counterparty who breached it. If this pre-litigation measure does not have the desired effect and the goods are still not delivered, the attorney will defend Mikhail's interests in court, and in the enforcement proceedings as well, until the client who came to us is fully satisfied.

In closing this article, we would like to note once again that online trade is a fast-growing sector, which is precisely why particular attention is paid to internet business in connection with the emergence of the information society and its direct contribution to the economy. The global network itself makes it possible for goods and services to enter the world trading market. The development of the information and communications technology sector is also a factor that promotes successful business operations and drives faster economic growth in various countries. E-commerce has been developing actively over the past two decades, which, compared with the development of many other sectors of the economy, is a fairly short period of time. The main function of the internet in electronic commerce is to store and distribute the information needed to research markets and find partners for sales or purchases of goods and services, as well as to allow deals to be concluded electronically. The internet makes it possible for a company to open a virtual presence in every country of the world at once, one that could operate in several languages, contain the most up-to-date and detailed information needed by the company's potential customers and partners, and be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Undoubtedly, this way of conducting commercial transactions is convenient for both suppliers and consumers. On the other hand, the risk of not receiving what was promised under the contract increases in proportion to the convenience of transactions conducted electronically.

We once again urge our clients to exercise caution and prudence, especially when concluding online and offline deals with new counterparties who have not yet proven themselves on the market. If, however, some misunderstanding or problem has already occurred, we invite you to our firm, where experienced attorneys, with dozens of successfully won cases behind them, will provide you with a thorough consultation. They will certainly help you find the best way out, even in what at first glance appears to be the most difficult and confusing situation.

Civil Law

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