In Australia, An Ebay Sale is a Sale

syousef writes "An eBay sale is a sale says an Australian New South Wales State Judge in a case where a man tried to reneg on the Ebay sale of a 1946 World War II Wirraway aircraft. The seller tried to weasel out of the deal because he'd received a separate offer $100,000 greater than the Ebay sale price. The buyer who had bid the reserve price of $150,000 at the last minute took him to court. 'It follows that, in my view, a binding contract was formed between the plaintiff and the defendant and that it should be specifically enforced,' Justice Rein said in his decision." I haven't found anything like this in previous discussions; have there been similar decisions like this handed down in the US, Canada, or Europe?

Comments

Binding contract

[halcyon1234]

I'm not sure if there really needs to be a case for it. Ebay makes no qualms about bidders and sellers entering a contract, and contract law is pretty well defined as it is.

What's more relevant...

[craznar]

.. is that it means there is no out for buyers to change their mind either :)

Good news for sellers....

Does there have to be more precedent?

[Angst Badger]

The legal status of auctions considerably pre-dates electricity, much less the web. I have a feeling that if you tried to argue that there was some difference between a web auction and a traditional auction in a US court, you'd get pretty much the same result this guy did.

Re:In Germany it was the other way around

[sholden]

That's exactly the same way round.

Re:Sale..

[AKAImBatman]

As soon as you receive what you ordered in a restaurant, and consumed.. then you have accepted.

No, the contract is formed prior to the consumption. The terms of the contract, however, are not completed until the food have been received. (From what I understand, consumption is more or less irrelevant from a legal standpoint. What if you took your food to go?)

You are not expected to pay for the restaurants incompetence/mistake.

Correct. This is a failure by the restaurant to carry through on its responsibilities under the contract. If the restaurant either states or implies a certain level of quality or service, you have every right to expect that level of quality or service. Of course, a restaurant may disagree with you, in which case it would take a judge to decide if the restaurant really did carry out it responsibilities under the contract, or if you were making unreasonable demands upon the restaurant that are not part of the implied contract.

Disclaimer: IANAL, but who the hell really is around here? We have so few lawyers, it's shocking. :-/

1946 World War II ?

[jolyonr]

Well, I know that Australia are ahead of us because of the time difference, but this is ridiculous!

Jolyon