Case law

  • Case Details
    • National ID: 4 Ob 139/09h
    • Member State: Austria
    • Common Name:link
    • Decision type: Supreme court decision
    • Decision date: 08/09/2009
    • Court: Supreme Court (Vienna)
    • Subject:
    • Plaintiff: N/A
    • Defendant: N/A
    • Keywords: black list, price reductions, seasonal sales
  • Directive Articles
    Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Chapter 2, Section 1, Article 6, 1., (b) Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Annex I, 7. Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Annex I, 15.
  • Headnote
    The advertising of certain sales by falsely stating that the terms under which the products are offered are available for a very limited time only, and by falsely claiming that the trader is about to cease trading, is contrary respectively to items 7 and 15 of Annex I of the UCP Directive.
  • Facts
    The defendant is a company in the textile and clothing sales industry. The defendant operated a branch establishment in Vienna since 7 July 2008, promoting from the very beginning in its office windows: "Total sales because of reconstruction, up to - 80%!". The defendant had no official authorization to promote sales.

    The plaintiff asked the defendant to cease and desist and the defendant signed an according declaration; however, only some time afterwards he still used slightly adapted promotions including "Total sales because of reconstruction!", "Only until 31.8.", "Only until 30.9.", "Up to - 80%", "Everything - 50%". Such promotions were still used in November 2008 despite the signed cease and desist declaration.

    The court could not find whether fast sales were truly required by the defendant or whether the establishment was truly being reconstructed. Furthermore, no regular sales prices for the reduced price products offered by the defendant could be found.

     
  • Legal issue
    Already the court of first instance held that the current practice constitutes an infringement of both §§ 33 ff UWG and § 2, Annex I, items 7 and 15 UWG (implementing the same items of Annex I to the UCP Directive).

    This was confirmed by the second instance court and no longer disputed before the Supreme Court.

     
  • Decision

    Does the advertising of certain sales by falsely stating that the terms under which the products are offered are available for a very limited time only, and by falsely claiming that the trader is about to cease trading, infringe respectively items 7 and 15 of Annex I of the UCP Directive, as implemented under Austrian law?

    Full text: Full text

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  • Result
    The plaintiff's request was granted.