GER: No Duty to Provide Info on Manufacturers’ Guarantees

Dec 2, 2022 Benn-Ibler Rechtsanwälte

Internet merchants do not have to inform consumers in any greater detail about manufacturers' guarantees if such a guarantee is not a central feature of the product offered. This is what the German Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof, hereinafter BGH) has recently decided with reference to a ruling of the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

In the case at issue, the defendant was selling Swiss Army knives on Amazon. Under the sub-heading ‘Additional Technical Information’, the site contained a link called ‘User's Manual’. When the customer clicked on this link, a product information notice was displayed stating: ‘Guarantee is unlimited and shall cover all material and manufacturing defects (and two years for electronics). Damage caused by normal wear and tear or improper use is not covered by guarantee.’ The product information notice did not contain any further information concerning any guarantees. The plaintiff considered this to be a violation of merchants’ legal information obligations concerning guarantees. The BGH initially stayed the proceedings and referred questions on the interpretation of Art 6(1) (m) of Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling. Now, following the ECJ's decision, the BGH has overturned the judgment of the Higher Regional Court.

The ECJ held as follows: The duty to inform consumers about any manufacturers’ guarantees only affects a company if the company makes the guarantee a key feature of the product and thus uses it as a selling point. If the manufacturer's guarantee is only mentioned in passing, so that from the consumer's point of view the guarantee is in no way a selling point, then a company does not have to provide any guarantee information. In the case of a dispute, the manufacturers’ guaranty shall not be deemed an essential feature of an offer.

This was also the case in the present case: The manufacturer's guaranty was not mentioned on the product page, but instead could only be found in a supplementary position on the product information page.

Press Release No. 158/2022 on BGH Judgment I ZR 241/19 (10 November 2022)