Protection of a car dealership from termination of the sales contract
A consumer bought a commercial grade cargo van from a car dealership. When a malfunction occurred in the car, as part of the warranty repair the car owner decided to withdraw from the sales contract. Despite the fact that the car was repaired, the consumer decided to get refund.
The car dealership rejected the buyer's claims since the buyer had no grounds for terminating the contract: the car was repaired and was serviceable.
The car owner disagreed with the dealer's answer and filed a lawsuit with a court at his place of residence. The amount of claims, if satisfied, would have reached about RUB 3 mln rubles, including a penalty and fine under the Law "On the Protection of Consumer Rights".
Case was handled by
Specialists of JurInvest Legal Support and Counselling Center assumed the defense of the car dealership. The lawyers drew the court's attention to the fact that the car was bought for business activities, not for personal or household needs. In this case, the Law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights” cannot be applied.
The complexity of the case consisted in the fact that it was necessary to find evidence to prove that the car was used for commercial purposes. To do this, it was necessary to confirm that the car owner was an entrepreneur and the car was used to generate income.
Based on the extracts from the Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs, the lawyers succeeded in proving that the car owner ran a car rental business. Moreover, the consumer was also the director of the company carrying out transportation by cargo vans.
Having considered these circumstances, the court agreed with our arguments. The position that the Law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights” did not apply to the relations between the parties was approved by the court.
As a result, the case was referred to a court having jurisdiction over the place of business of the car dealership. This will allow the car dealership to defend its rights in the future.