GER: Unintended Trip Cancellation – 5 Wrong Clicks Is Unrealistic

May 17, 2024 Benn-Ibler Rechtsanwälte

Based on the general experience of life, it can happen that individuals accidentally click on something once that does not correspond to what they really intended to do. However, when cancelling a trip by means of a procedure involving a total of five different steps, it is unrealistic to have clicked on something wrong every single time. The plaintiff’s excuse that the website was too confusing was not accepted by the Munich District Court.

The plaintiff had booked a nine-day holiday in Portugal for himself and his wife with the defendant in June 2023 for a price of approximately EUR 4,500. The plaintiff subsequently cancelled the holiday on the defendant’s website, so the defendant then debited the plaintiff’s account with cancellation fees of approximately EUR 4,000. On the same day, the plaintiff sent an email to the defendant to cancel the cancellation. The plaintiff claimed that he had only found out after booking that there was a construction site next to the hotel. Furthermore, due to the lack of clarity on the website, he had only wanted to find out about rebooking options on the internet and had unintentionally cancelled the trip. The defendant argued that an unintentional cancellation was impossible in the system, as several individual steps are necessary for the final cancellation.

In principle, a declaration of intent that contains a slip of the tongue, a slip of the pen or mistyping, or clicking on the wrong thing can be challenged without difficulty. However, if a declaration is confirmed five times with a click of the mouse, it is no longer possible to speak of a mistake in intent, according to the Munich District Court.

For this reason, the Court did not consider the plaintiff’s supposed inadvertent trip cancellation to be credible.

Rather, it must be assumed that the plaintiff was fully aware that he was making a definitive cancellation when he carried out the entire online process and was not just attempting to change the booking, as he had stated.

The judgement of the Munich District Court has not yet become legally effective.

Press release 15 by AG München 275 C 20050/23 (29 April 2024)