Negative Beschaffenheitsvereinbarungen mit Verbrauchern

The European Union's goal of conserving resources and extending product life cycles is undermined when companies are unwilling to return defective goods - such as returned items - to the economic cycle at a reduced price. However, the interpretive leeway created by the open wording of the elements of § 476(1) sentence 2 BGB, together with insufficient guidance from the directive's legislator, leads in practice to legal uncertainty and high transaction costs when implementing agreements on reduced quality between traders and consumers. Michael Basche demonstrates that the European legislator has altered the legal situation without necessity - the regulatory aims pursued were already being achieved under the previous legal framework. Instead, the directive legislator opens the door to opportunistic consumer behavior and thereby shifts the balance of substantive contractual fairness.