A Reddit user wants to upgrade his gaming PC, but Amazon delivered more than ordered. This could happen to you too. Lawyer Christian Solmecke knows how you should behave.
What was in the Amazon delivery? Reddit user Frequent-Remove69 ordered two products from Amazon: a graphics card of the type Radeon RX 6750XT and a CPU from AMD, a Ryzen 5 7600.
However, when he opened the shipping box, he found two of each item. So two GPUs and two CPUs. He reported this in the subreddit pcmasterrace as well as in the subreddit pcbuild. Quickly, the two posts gathered more than 17,000 upvotes. (As of noon, August 20, 2024).
Did Amazon charge for everything? According to the poster’s reports, he only paid for what he ordered – the rest came unsolicited.
But what happens if you receive too much in Germany? We asked lawyer Christian Solmecke what you need to do. He works as a lawyer and partner at the Cologne law firm WBS.LEGAL. He operates in the fields of IT, media, competition, copyright, commercial, and internet law.
Expert opinion: The right way to handle an “over-delivery” in Germany
Do I have to contact the seller, such as Amazon, as a buyer?
There is at least no legal obligation to inform the merchant, as the over-delivery lies within his area of responsibility. Therefore, one does not have to actively contact Amazon, although courtesy would suggest it.
How long do I have to wait before I can keep the goods?
The claim for restitution by the seller or for payment of the purchase price does not expire until three years later. The deadline begins at the end of the year in which the claim arose. So anyone who receives an over-delivery today may still be claimed by Amazon for the over-delivery until the end of 2027.
What happens if I do not cooperate with the seller or no longer have the (additional) goods?
Even if one would like to keep the over-delivery, one has no right to do so. In such cases, one is considered to be “enriched” in a legal sense, without there being any legal reason for it. Therefore, one must help ensure that the goods return to the seller. If the customer remains obstinate, even criminal charges may be considered.
Who bears the return shipping costs?
The return costs (transport, packaging, etc.) are to be borne by the merchant in this case. After all, he made the mistake.
Christian Solmecke has been our interlocutor on a legal topic before. We also previously spoke with him about the theoretical possibility of a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard as the operator of Diablo Immortal. Can the action RPG also become the subject of a fraud lawsuit in Germany, as was previously considered in the USA?
