💡 Summary: This page covers purchase contracts, cancellations after payment, revocation, right of retention, and applicable laws in cross-border cases within the European Union. It also addresses specific scenarios such as supplier disappearance, insurance claims for faulty products, responsibility for incorrect listings, and differences between B2C and B2B customers.
- 🛍️ Purchase Contract
Generally, contracts are concluded by mutual declarations of intent on the good and its price.
The preliminary declaration of intent is made by the customer by pressing the button "Order Now" at the check-out. Through this, the customer (only) submits an offer to the supplier on buying the respective good for the offered price. Refurbed (as intermediate) forwards this offer to the supplier. The supplier’s declaration of intent is the acceptance of the offer through the shipping of the ordered product.
Summary: Purchase contracts are concluded by mutual declaration of intents by the customer and supplier. While the customer provides the preliminary declaration by submitting an offer, the supplier ultimately accepts its content through the shipping of the product. This applies independently of the chosen payment method.
See also refurbed’s terms & conditions Chapter 4 “Registration and use for customers”.
- ↩️ Revocation/Withdrawal
Consumers are entitled to declare withdrawal from a (distance/off-premise) contract
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Within 14 days from the delivery of the device, and
→ Mind, the refurbed withdrawal (testing) period is extended to 30 days!
- Without giving any reason, and
- Without incurring any costs (except for loss of value due to improper use).
Businesses must prior to contract conclusion
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Inform consumers of the right of withdrawal (at least in the General Terms & Conditions of the Supplier) in accordance with the applicable law, e.g. description of the withdrawal conditions, consequences, time limit and procedures for exercising that right.
→ You may use the information templates provided by the national laws (see below) but mind to comply with the Supplier Guide & Quality Charter provisions, e.g. the withdrawal (testing) period extension of 30 days instead of 14 days, or since correspondence must only be held on the refurbed ticketing interfaces, exclude the possibility to have the form sent via post.
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Provide right of withdrawal information and form (see below mandatory forms) on a permanent storage medium (e.g. downloadable, paper or E-mail).
→ Failure to do so results in an extended withdrawal period up to 1 year and 14 days. (Art 10 Nr 1 Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU)
→ Suppliers therefor need to submit the withdrawal information to be integrated on the refurbed website.
Each member state published a template of the minimum content of a right of withdrawal notice and a mandatory template for the withdrawal form, check & include to the website!
🇦🇹 Austrian mandatory template for withdrawal form [link] Annex 1 FAAG
🇩🇪 German mandatory template for withdrawal form [link] Annex 1 Introductory Act to the BGB
🇮🇹 Italian mandatory template for withdrawal form [link] Annex 1 Part 1 Codice del Consumo
🇳🇱 Dutch mandatory template for withdrawal form [link] Model Form attached to Link
🇩🇰 Danish mandatory template for withdrawal form [link] Annex (Bilag) 1 Consumer Contracts Act
🇮🇪 Irish mandatory template for withdrawal form [link] Schedule 4 Part 1 Consumer Rights Act 2022
See also in Detail: 🚚 Right of return - Informing Obligations
Legal Grounds
🇪🇺 EU: Art 6, 9, 10, 11 Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU
🇦🇹 Austria: § 4 (1) Nr. 8, §§ 11, 12 FAAG; Annex 1 FAAG
🇩🇪 Germany: §§ 355, 356 BGB; Art 246a and Annex 1 Introductory Act to the Civil Code
🇮🇹 Italy: Art 49, comma 1, lett. h) and Annex 1 Part 1 Codice del Consumo
🇳🇱 Netherlands: Article 6:230o of the Civil Code (Burgerlijk Wetboek)
🇩🇰 Denmark: §§ 18-25 Forbrugeraftalelovens (Consumer Contracts Act), Annex (Bilag) 1
🇮🇪 Ireland: Schedule 4, Part 1 Consumer Right Act 2022
- 💭 Right of retention
⌛Supplier is late in inspecting a returned product within 30 days trial
In the case of withdrawal, i.e. during the 30 days period the following applies:
Statutory withdrawal law oblige sellers to reimburse all payments received from the consumer in any event not later than 14 days from the day on which he is informed of the consumer’s decision to withdraw from the contract, while allowing to withhold the reimbursement until he has received the goods back, or until the consumer has supplied evidence of having sent back the goods, whichever is the earliest.
Therefore, if the Supplier has received the device but is late in inspecting it, this cannot be hold against the Consumer’s right to refund.
Additionally, the Supplier Guide obliges to compensate the purchase price within 3 business days, otherwise Refurbed may take over and make the refund to the customer in the name of the Supplier.
Legal Grounds:
🇪🇺 EU: Art 13 Number 1 and 3 Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU
🇦🇹 Austria: § 11 in conjunction with § 14 FAAG
🇩🇪 Germany: § 357 BGB
📘 Supplier Guide
- Chapter 7, section 7.2. Number 1
- Chapter 8 Number 3
💽 Customer returns device that is still attached to iCloud
According to Quality Charter Chapter for CE 5.1.4 "Fees that the Supplier can retain", the following applies: “If the customer returns a product that is locked or not disconnected from the cloud making shipment back to the customer necessary, the Supplier can retain the related shipping costs.”
Hence, suppliers must primarily send the device back to the customer and (only) retain the related shipping costs.
If a Customer explicitly agrees to provide their iCloud passport to have the Supplier remove the iCloud on site, i.e. without a shipment to the Customer, Suppliers may only retain the financial expense that was factually associated to this, substantiate it and only provided the Customer was sufficiently informed of this prior to contract conclusion and return. The costs must not exceed the shipping costs in the regular process stipulated in the Quality Charter describe above.
- 🌎 Which law is applicable in CS cases?
In cross-border contracts between a consumer and a business within the EU, the applicable law is determined by the Rome I Regulation (Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008), which provides mandatory rules for determining the applicable law.
The general principle is freedom of choice, which means the contract parties may mutually choose the applicable law. → For refurbed purchases, this is not possible prior to contract conclusion.
In the absence of a mutually chosen law, the domestic law of the consumer's habitual residence applies (Art 6 Rome I Regulation). This is due to the Regulation’s aim to protect consumer interests by enabling familiar legal safeguards of their home country.
→ Exemtion: Supplier **has neither directed or exercised a commercial or professional activity in the country of the consumer’s habitual residence, this applies for example for consumers outside of Europe.
- 🎭 B2B vs B2C customers
National and European laws distinguish between businesses and consumers, as the classification triggers certain different legal consequences for the same case. (See below)
💡 Some legal forms (e.g. Austrian/German AG, GmbH) are always businesses by law.
Otherwise the decisive distinguish feature is determining a business or consumer “transaction”.
A business transaction is present, if the transaction, in the broadest sense, belongs to the operation of the business, while a consumer transaction is a transaction done by any person for whom the transaction is not (in Germany: predominantly) part of a business operation. The European Court of Justice ruled however, a consumer transaction only exists if the professional purpose is so incidental that the overall context plays a very minor role.
Businesses can perform consumer transactions but must, in case of doubt, prove that they were at the time of the transaction recognizably acting and appearing as consumer to the other party. Doubts for example would be ordering via business customer check-out, disclosure of a business registration number, VAT or other business numbers. A business relationship is to be assumed, until the customer in question provides sufficient evidence of a consumer transaction.
Differing legal consequences
- Transport risk not applicable for B2B;
- No warranty notice deadline for B2C (up to 2 weeks for B2B);
- No statutory withdrawal right for B2B, but mind refurbed’s withdrawal period of 30 days.
- The applicable law is typically the consumer’s state, in B2B the seller’s state.