On 17 April 2024, the Regional Court of Frankfurt ruled in case 2-06 O 361/22 on the mandatory information that must be provided to consumers when ordering via online shops.
The Regional Court clearly rejected the practice of entrepreneurs to provide relevant information on a website about the order and its performance, which can only be accessed by moving the mouse pointer over a certain point on the displayed website.
The facts of the case
In the present case, the entrepreneur from the electronics industry offered the purchase of a mobile phone and the selection of a telephone tariff from the network operators available on the market on its website. In the opinion of the Regional Court, the entrepreneur’s website did not fulfil the legal requirements regarding the transparency of the information policy towards the consumer. The reason behind this was an insufficiently visible location on the order page where the entrepreneur provided important information about the fulfilment of the contract such as the delivery time of the ordered products, in an area on the order page that was not sufficiently visible and the consumer had to move the mouse pointer over an inadequately labelled areaon the website in order to see the information about the delivery conditions.
Legal analysis of the decision
The Regional Court upheld the plaintiff’s claim for an injunction because the defendant had failed to inform consumers clearly and transparently about the delivery time of the ordered products. According to the court, the information about the contract and its performance must be clearly visible on the order website. Consumers should not be forced to make further mouse movements to search for additional information on the seller’s website. The court pointed out that consumers may not be aware that the entrepreneur has placed further contractual conditions on the website, which should be made available to the consumer in a transparent manner before the contract is concluded. Displaying the relevant information only after navigating to a certain point on the website does not fulfil this condition.
Consequences for the owners of online shops
In view of the judgement of the Regional Court in Frankfurt, which clearly points out the need to present the relevant information about the contract to be concluded in a clear and direct manner, online entrepreneurs should immediately review their websites and, if necessary, make the appropriate changes to inform the consumer in a transparent manner about the terms of the contract to be concluded.
Grau Rechtsanwälte PartGmbB offers legal support to e-commerce entrepreneurs in all legal aspects of running an online shop in Germany.
If you have any further questions, please contact our law firm on +49 (0) 40 180 364 020 or office@graulaw.eu.
