GER: BGH Ruling on Vintage Car Warranty

May 10, 2024 Benn-Ibler Rechtsanwälte

Even when a warranty is fully excluded, the seller remains responsible for maintaining the agreed-upon quality. The German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, hereinafter BGH) has ruled that a seller of a vintage car cannot advertise the vehicle’s air-conditioning system as ‘working perfectly’ while, at the same time, excluding any warranty for material defects.

In March 2021, the plaintiff privately purchased a vintage car from the defendant for EUR 25,000. The sale advertisement on an online platform said, among other things: 

‘Air conditioning works perfectly. The sale is made under the exclusion of any liability for defects in the material’. In May 2021, the plaintiff complained that the AC was not working properly. He wanted the defendant, the seller, to reimburse him for the cost of the repairs. However, the seller denied the claim on the basis of the exclusion of warranty clause in the contract. Nevertheless, the plaintiff had the vintage car’s AC repaired and is now suing for the repair costs incurred.

The claim was unsuccessful in the lower courts. The exclusion of the warranty extended to the defect AC and therefore precluded any claim for damages. In the case of vintage cars, even if a quality agreement has been concluded, the inevitable ageing of individual components means that a need for repairs must always be reckoned with, even if the car is of high quality and well-maintained.

The BGH has now ruled in favour of the plaintiff buyer.

The BGH has consistently held that in cases of previously agreed-upon quality, an additional general exclusion of liability for material defects must be interpreted as not applying to the absence of agreed quality, but only to other defects. An interpretation of the exclusion of liability that deviates from this principle is out of the question here, contrary to the opinion of the court of appeal.

In particular, neither the age of a vehicle or a component, nor the fact that components are typically subject to wear and tear, justifies the assumption that a concurrently agreed general exclusion of warranty should also apply to the absence of the agreed quality. These circumstances may be relevant to the normal condition of a used car. For the question of a specifically agreed quality and its relationship to a general exclusion of liability, however, they are irrelevant.

Press release no. 82/2024 to BGH VIII ZR 161/23 (10April 2024)