The Higher Regional Court of Koblenz ruled on January 25, 2017 (Ref.: 9 W 426/16) that online retailers who sell their goods via an online marketplace must also refer to the ODR dispute resolution platform. Online marketplaces include websites such as eBay, Amazon, Rakuten and others.
Obligation to refer to the ODR dispute resolution platform
The duty to provide information under Article 14 of the ODR Regulation now also applies to eBay traders. The Higher Regional Court of Dresden previously emphasized that the obligation to provide information only applied to companies that offer their goods in an online store under their own domain. However, the ruling only referred to the online marketplace Amazon, meaning that only Amazon traders were not obliged to provide information.
Warning due to a breach of competition law
A retailer mainly offered vehicle and motorcycle accessories on the online marketplace “eBay”. After the new ODR Regulation came into force on January 9, 2016, the eBay trader received a warning from an interest group of online entrepreneurs. One of the reasons for the warning was the lack of reference to the ODR platform.
The retailer took legal action against the warning letter before the regional court. The Regional Court of Koblenz then denied a breach of competition law pursuant to Section 3a UWG and ruled in favor of the online retailer. An online retailer is only obliged to provide a notice if it operates its “own website”. However, an eBay store is not an own website, but merely an online marketplace.
Obligation to provide information for eBay traders
The Higher Regional Court disagreed with the judgment of the Regional Court on appeal. The operator of an online store on a trading platform such as eBay or Amazon is also subject to the information obligation under Art. 14 of the ODR Regulation.
Online marketplace retailers operate their own website
According to the Higher Regional Court of Koblenz, neither the wording of the regulation nor the recitals indicate that the regulated obligation should not apply to traders on trading platforms.
Art. 14 of the ODR Regulation: “Traders established in the Union who enter into online sales contracts or online service contracts and online marketplaces established in the Union shall provide a link to the ODR platform on their websites. That link shall be easily accessible to consumers. […]”
It is irrelevant for the online retailer on the marketplace whether it already provides sufficient information about the dispute resolution platform. This is because the marketplaces are also obliged to provide information separately and not just instead of the online retailer.
Dissenting decision of the OLG Dresden
In a similar case, the Higher Regional Court of Dresden ruled to the contrary. The obligation to provide information only applies to online retailers who operate their own website. However, it does not apply to online retailers who sell their goods via marketplaces such as Amazon.
Retailers should still provide a link
The ODR Regulation is intended to ensure a high level of consumer protection. It is not necessarily sufficient for the marketplace operator, such as eBay, to simply provide the link. After all, the customer comes into contact with the seller – Amazon largely only takes care of the processing.
According to Art. 8 in conjunction with the Annex to the ODR Regulation, the customer should therefore also provide the website address and address of the trader – not that of Amazon. This obligation would in any case be contradictory if the Amazon page of a seller were not counted as an independent website.
Entrepreneurs are therefore well advised, especially after the ruling of the Koblenz Higher Regional Court, to continue to refer to the arbitration platform, especially since the reference does not require any particular effort.