Unknown customer – Court Ruling (Germany, 2018)
Court ruling (pre-GDPR, Directive 95/46/EC)
This national court ruling predates the GDPR and interprets earlier data protection law. It is excluded from cookie statistics and the Risk Calculator.
A German court ruled that a customer could withdraw from a mobile phone contract change within 14 days, treating it as a new contract. This is important because it clarifies consumer rights in contract modifications.
What happened
The court ruled that a customer could withdraw from a mobile phone contract change within 14 days, as it was considered a new contract.
Who was affected
A mobile phone customer who changed their payment plan and sought to withdraw from the contract change.
What the authority found
The court decided that the contract change was a new agreement, allowing the customer to withdraw within the 14-day period under consumer rights law.
Why this matters
This ruling clarifies that changes to existing contracts can be treated as new contracts, granting consumers the right to withdraw. Businesses should be clear about contract terms and withdrawal rights.
GDPR Articles Cited
National Law Articles
The data subject concluded a mobile phone contract with the controller on 25 September 2018. The contract gave the data subject the option to change her payment plan in the fourth to the sixth month of the contract in exchange for a contractual extension of another 24 months, which the defendant took on 27 December 2018. On the same day she received an affirmative response from the controller which stated that her "present payment plan will be cancelled on 27 December 2020". On 6 January 2019, the data subject sent the controller a letter stating that she is exercising her right to withdraw from the contract within 14 days after the contract ([https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32011L0083 Article 9 Consumer Rights Directive]). From 11 February 2019 until 10 July 2019 the controller invoiced her several times. The data subject did not pay these invoices. On 16 September 2019 the controller arranged an out-of-court SCHUFA entry against the data subject. On 27 September 2019, the controller commissioned the deletion of the entry by the SCHUFA. However, only after instructing the SCHUFA a second time to delete the entry, the entry was finally marked as to be deleted on 19.07.2021. As a result of the entry, the data subject was denied a loan on the 26 March 2020 and on 29 December 2020 a loan was only granted on the condition that the entry is erased. Because of the oustanding invoices, the controller initiated court proceedings against the data subject arguing that the data subject was bound by the contract and did not have a right to withdraw from the contract, because the change of the payment plan was a mere alteration of the original contract and not a new replacing contract. The data subject, on the other hand, argued that it was indeed a new contract which replaced the old one so she had a fourteen day period to withdraw from the contract under the respective German provision of [https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:3201
Outcome
Court Ruling
A ruling by a national court on a data-protection matter.
Related Cases (0)
No other cases found for Unknown customer in DE
This is the only recorded case for this entity in this jurisdiction.
Details
About this data
Cite as: Cookie Fines. Unknown customer - Germany (2018). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu
Last updated: