Case law

  • Case Details
    • National ID: III ZR 295/06
    • Member State: Germany
    • Common Name:link
    • Decision type: Other
    • Decision date: 15/11/2007
    • Court: BGH (Supreme court)
    • Subject:
    • Plaintiff:
    • Defendant:
    • Keywords:
  • Directive Articles
    Doorstep Selling Directive, Article 1, 1.
  • Headnote
    About the differentiation between acting as a consumer and acting in the course of a business and about a doorstep situation regarding a transaction with the purpose of preparing the setting up of a business (in continuation of the principles set out in the senate’s decree of 24 February 2005 – III ZB 36/04).
  • Facts
    The defendant intended to go into business as the co-owner of a gym by entering the partnership running it. On the defendant’s and her husbands’ invitation, the plaintive tax counsellor visited their apartment on 7 January 2004 to “x-ray” the couple’s financial situation with respect to taxes. The plaintiff states that, on this occasion, he had been entrusted with the task to develop a business founding plan. Primarily, this plan had the purpose to obtain subsidies. For the development of this business plan the plaintiff invoiced the defendant with a fee for 40 hours work and an hourly rate of EUR 80 plus v. a. t. This amount – together with the expenses for out-of-court legal counsel and interests – was claimed in the present law suit. By letter dating from 14 September 2005 the defendant for reasons of precaution declared the withdrawal from the contract as per §§ 312, 355 BGB. The courts of the lower instances dismissed the claims. By way of appeal on a point of law, which has been admitted by the appellate court, the plaintiff continues to push his claim.
  • Legal issue
    The plaintiff’s appeal on a point of law was not successful. The courts of the lower instances both correctly assumed that the alleged agreement on the development of a business founding plan was a doorstep transaction as per § 321 (1)(1) no. 1 BGB (new version). Accordingly, the defendant was entitled to a right of withdrawal as per § 355 BGB which she validly exerted. The defendant acted as a consumer in the terms of § 13 BGB when she mandated the plaintiff on 7 January 2004, while the plaintiff was acting in the course of a business in the terms of § 14 BGB. The mandate could neither be attributed to the defendant’s commercial or self-employed professional activity. The Third Senate has indeed held that that a person acts in the course of business and not as a consumer, if the transaction in question is made during the preparation for resuming a commercial or self-employed professional activity (the so-called “setting up of a business”). The relevant criterion is the person’s intention for activity, which is to be determined from an impartial point of view. The law does not focus on the existence or non-existence of business experience (e. g. because the person concerned is already running a business). Rather, it is essential whether the behaviour of the person concerned is materially of a private or of a commercial nature. In the first case, the person acts as a consumer, in the latter in the course of a business. Transactions in the course of the setting up of a business, e. g. the rental of business premises, the conclusion of a franchise agreement or the purchase of a share in a private group practice, are materially and objectively clearly oriented to acting in the course of a business.

    However, the combination of circumstances in question here is – as the courts of the lower instances have pointed out correctly – not comparable to the cases mentioned above. This is because the defendant’s transaction was not made in the course of the setting up of a business, but was rather meant to prepare the decision whether to set up a business or not by establishing the relevant economic data for the business. Only the result of this analysis gave the defendant the opportunity to make a well-informed decision. As the essential criterion is the objective purpose of the transaction (see above), it is of no relevance here whether the defendant had already been bound and determined to set up a business. Rather, it is of a decisive nature that the measure which was taken was not yet a part of the setting up of the business, but took place at the stage of its preparation. Accordingly, the mandate is not (yet) to be attributed to the commercial, but to the private area.

    In addition, the situation the agreement was concluded in is to be qualified as a doorstep situation as per § 312(1)(1) no. 1 BGB, because the verbal negotiations took place in the defendant’s private apartment. There is no room for the exception of § 312(3) no. 1 BGB. According to this provision, there is no right of withdrawal, if the verbal negotiations leading to the conclusion of the contract have been conducted due to a prior invitation by the consumer. The appellate court has established by taking evidence that the plaintiff was not invited to the defendant’s house to discuss a revision of the defendant’s business plan. Rather, the purpose of the invitation was to evaluate the financial situation of the defendant and her husband with respect to taxes in case of her setting up a business and to discuss the related doubts of her husband. In this situation, the defendant did not have to be prepared to be confronted with the offer to develop a business founding plan. Accordingly, the verbal negotiations which lead to the conclusion of the contract have not been conducted due to prior invitation by the defendant.
  • Decision

    Full text: Full text

  • Related Cases

    No results available

  • Legal Literature

    No results available

  • Result