Niall,
before you get the wrong impression, some clarification.
I think Mirko is upset with the non-profitable used goods market @ fotoimpex for two reasons:
Ebay has developed as THE platform for used goods and has the widest customer base and largest offering, because it can be used by any private person and any company and works worldwide.
The German government ratified a law suggestion from EU government to protect consumers from being tricked on sales of used goods. Before introducing this law you could possibly pay for a car which had a serious accident which was invisible after repair but showed later that the chassis is bend. Formerly you could not claim the money back or force to repair. The new law says that now a company selling used goods has to describe the good accurately and it has to be free from flaws, if not mentioned. If the good was having a flaw or was defective at the time of purchasing the dealer can be held liable for a period of 2 years (within his own AGBs he can reduce to 1 year) whereas the first six months he has to prove the flawless condition, after six months it is the customer's duty. For private sales the whole liability can be excluded, if not, the two years and everything said before even applies to sales from private to private. It is not an EU law, but incorporated in the German BGB, the basic law book of Germany.
Ebay is no exception from that! The Ebay platform cannot bend national laws! Ebay does not equal an auction with an auctioneer, which would be excluded from this law.
The other problem for Mirko is, that some of the old enlargers and other electronic equipment do not comply with nowadays safety regulations and he is afraid of being held liable for injuries. Well, he should and it applies to all sales of goods. Companies are not exception from this. Even if I sell it privately I can be held liable if somebody gets hurt.
The third situation is the so called "Fernabsatzgesetz" which has been ratified to avoid fraud and abuse on businesses over the internet. Every commercial dealer has to grant a full money back warranty for a period of two weeks on anonymous sales over the internet, telephone and fax to private customers only. This does not apply to B2B businesses.
A good example that Ebay cannot bend national law is the restriction to list all bought items from a German Ebay member. I can look it up for any US Ebay member, because the US privacy protection is so low and German law does not allow that.
I think we have to respect the decision from Mirko to stop the business with used goods, yet I could not leave the contributed reasons uncommented.
Michael
before you get the wrong impression, some clarification.
I think Mirko is upset with the non-profitable used goods market @ fotoimpex for two reasons:
Ebay has developed as THE platform for used goods and has the widest customer base and largest offering, because it can be used by any private person and any company and works worldwide.
The German government ratified a law suggestion from EU government to protect consumers from being tricked on sales of used goods. Before introducing this law you could possibly pay for a car which had a serious accident which was invisible after repair but showed later that the chassis is bend. Formerly you could not claim the money back or force to repair. The new law says that now a company selling used goods has to describe the good accurately and it has to be free from flaws, if not mentioned. If the good was having a flaw or was defective at the time of purchasing the dealer can be held liable for a period of 2 years (within his own AGBs he can reduce to 1 year) whereas the first six months he has to prove the flawless condition, after six months it is the customer's duty. For private sales the whole liability can be excluded, if not, the two years and everything said before even applies to sales from private to private. It is not an EU law, but incorporated in the German BGB, the basic law book of Germany.
Ebay is no exception from that! The Ebay platform cannot bend national laws! Ebay does not equal an auction with an auctioneer, which would be excluded from this law.
The other problem for Mirko is, that some of the old enlargers and other electronic equipment do not comply with nowadays safety regulations and he is afraid of being held liable for injuries. Well, he should and it applies to all sales of goods. Companies are not exception from this. Even if I sell it privately I can be held liable if somebody gets hurt.
The third situation is the so called "Fernabsatzgesetz" which has been ratified to avoid fraud and abuse on businesses over the internet. Every commercial dealer has to grant a full money back warranty for a period of two weeks on anonymous sales over the internet, telephone and fax to private customers only. This does not apply to B2B businesses.
A good example that Ebay cannot bend national law is the restriction to list all bought items from a German Ebay member. I can look it up for any US Ebay member, because the US privacy protection is so low and German law does not allow that.
I think we have to respect the decision from Mirko to stop the business with used goods, yet I could not leave the contributed reasons uncommented.
Michael
