In brief
On December 10, 2020, the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV) published a ministerial draft bill on the implementation of the directive on the sale of goods (Directive (EU) 2019/771) (“Sales of Goods Directive”). The Sales of Goods Directive supersedes and succeeds the directive on the sale of consumer goods (Directive 1999/44/EC), which has been implemented into the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch; “BGB”) since January 1, 2002.
In order to implement the Sales of Goods Directive, the ministerial draft bill of the new German Civil Code (“BGB-E”) provides for a number of changes to German law on sales contracts. The proposed changes include, inter alia, (i) a reformation of the concept of material defects and the requirements for a conformity of the goods, (ii) the introduction of special provisions applicable to goods with digital elements, including the seller’s obligation to provide respective updates; (iii) the introduction of a suspension of expiration of the statute of limitation for the consumer’s claims for defects; (iv) the extension of the reversal of the burden of proof and (v) the introduction of statutory requirements for commercial guarantees.
