Case law

  • Case Details
    • National ID: BH2013. 21.
    • Member State: Hungary
    • Common Name:link
    • Decision type: Supreme court decision
    • Decision date: 16/10/2012
    • Court: Curia (Supreme Court)
    • Subject:
    • Plaintiff: Unknown
    • Defendant: Unknown
    • Keywords: commercial guarantee, inaccurate information, information requirements
  • Directive Articles
    Consumer Sales and Guarantees Directive, Article 6 , 2., -
  • Headnote
    The distributor of the product must indicate the additional conditions related to the installation of the product stemming from the nature thereof in the guarantee statement.
  • Facts
    A private individual not party to the proceedings purchased an electric stove from the plaintiff. The stove was installed by a contractor chosen by the consumer. The stove became defective within the guarantee period, but the plaintiff rejected the consumer's claim to repair the product because the product was not installed by the service station appointed by the plaintiff.

    The consumer referred the dispute to the defendant, an arbitration board, which stated in its recommendation that the plaintiff had unlawfully set out additional conditions for exercising guarantee rights, and required the plaintiff to comply with the consumer's request.

    The plaintiff contested the defendant's recommendation before court, but both the first and second instance courts upheld the recommendation of the defendant.

    The plaintiff requested the Curia's (Supreme Court) revision of the second instance court's judgement, stating that installing such products requires special knowledge, and that his obligations under commercial guarantee are so strict that it would be unreasonable if he would have to assume liability for the defects of products which were installed by an unknown third parties. Thus, the plaintiff stated that setting out special conditions regarding the installation of such products is reasonable under applicable laws.

    The Curia rejected the plaintiff's claims and upheld the judgment of the second instance court. The Curia stated that in some cases, setting out such additional conditions may be considered lawful, but in the present case, the plaintiff failed to prove that the nature of the product in question would indeed require special installation by a service station.
  • Legal issue
    Additional requirements related to the installation of the product set out as a condition for exercising guarantee rights may only be considered lawful if the nature of the product would reasonably require such procedure.
  • Decision

    May the business party set out such additional conditions for exercising guarantee rights pursuant to which the consumer is required to have the product installed by the service station appointed by the business party?

    Full text: Full text

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  • Result
    The Curia rejected the plaintiff's claims and upheld the judgment of the second instance court.