First success before the Hildesheim Regional Court: Amazon releases credit balance of almost €30,000 shortly before the hearing

05.09.2019 From Arno Lampmann

We had reported on this:

In a temporary injunction issued on 26 June 2019, the Regional Court of Hildesheim ruled that Amazon must immediately lift the block on a seller account, restore deleted listings and immediately release any retained credit on the account. Failure to comply could result in a fine of up to €250,000 or up to six months’ imprisonment.

Due to unusual events, to put it mildly, this process, which in itself is not particularly remarkable, has developed into what could be described as a farce if it were not so serious.

Amazon does not comply with the ban, thwarts the delivery, but openly admits: reason for cancellation was only a pretext

Amazon has still not complied with the prohibition order with regard to the account deactivation – the retailer is still blocked.

Amazon also makes no secret in court of the fact that the reason for the cancellation was only a pretext and, instead of factual arguments, defends itself primarily with procedural peculiarities resulting from its own general terms and conditions and with the allegedly incorrect enforcement of the order. According to this, Amazon can block or cancel anyone at any time and without justification. Furthermore, the retailer could not take legal action in German courts, but would have to do so in Luxembourg.

Amazon conceals important changes to the contract terms

What Amazon had not previously mentioned is that the terms and conditions no longer apply in this form. The Group had already committed itself in July 2019 under pressure from the German Federal Cartel Office to amend these provisions in favour of the approximately 300,000 Amazon retailers in order to avoid a not inconsiderable fine and has already done so by updating these contractual terms and conditions on 16 August 2019.

The chronology to date can be found in the following articles:

Amazon makes GTC change undisputed, now claims cancellation

Under the pressure of our reporting, Amazon quickly made the changes indisputable in a recent statement to the regional court.

Anyone assuming that the company would draw the appropriate consequences from this is mistaken. Instead of abandoning the corresponding legal defence, Amazon now claims in its latest statements that the retailer in question has not only been blocked or his account deactivated, but that it has even been ‘indisputably’ terminated. Amazon’s triumphant conclusion: merchants with whom Amazon no longer has a contractual relationship can no longer benefit from an amendment to the terms and conditions.

However, the retailer is not aware of any cancellation to date. On the contrary. In the backend of the account, the status is still shown as ‘valid’.

Amazon releases credit balance of almost €30,000 shortly before hearing

With regard to the frozen amounts, which Amazon believes can in principle be withheld for an indefinite period (‘90 days or longer’), it has apparently now become too delicate for those responsible: Following an application by the applicant to impose a not inconsiderable fine on Amazon, a few days before the oral hearing, Amazon has now finally released at least the retailer’s ‘frozen’ credit balance of almost €30,000 and transferred it to the retailer.

The court will therefore probably only have to decide on the activation of the account. We will report further.