Legal assistance in case of cancellation of your order

Questioner

I ordered an item from an external seller via a large online store. They cancelled the order 1 business day later, stating that the item was no longer in stock. I then contacted the seller. My item is online on their own website, but €50 more expensive than the price I paid via bol.com (but with the same seller). Seller now claims that the item he still has in stock is a different version but cannot indicate what is different about this version. In addition, the item has the same name, description and product specifications on the website of the large online store and the seller's site. To what extent is the seller obliged to sell me the item for the price of the large online store?

Lawyer

The item is in stock so the seller must fulfill his obligations; deliver the item at the agreed price.

Questioner

Can I also legally substantiate your answer? I remain stuck with the seller's answer: that is not possible.

Lawyer

He will continue to maintain that I fear, but a legally valid and therefore enforceable agreement has been reached between the parties. If a case occurs that an article is not in stock and the seller has arranged in his terms and conditions that in that case the purchase agreement can be unilaterally cancelled, he can in principle rely on that. (because these types of conditions must be presented to you clearly and in a visible place on the site) However, the article is simply in stock and therefore he must adhere to obligations. I can name a whole series of articles of law, but the most important is: 6:217BW and 6:74 BW because if the seller does not deliver according to the conditions what he can deliver, he is in default.

Questioner

Thanks for the reply. I sent a similar reply to the seller but now it indicates that it was a price error instead of no stock. 'The price that was stated with the article does not even come close to what it should have been. Therefore it is also plausible that this price was incorrect and therefore completely wrong.' The €16.95 was apparently a pricing error and not a sales price as stated on the Bol website.

Lawyer

In the case of a typing error, this must have been apparent to the customer to be invalid. This is related to the value of the product, 50 euros more or less on a price of 400 is not yet doubtful, but on a market value of 25 it is of course. (and therefore also on 16.95) Furthermore, typing errors must be apparent from a comma change or something like that or, as I said above, really evidently wrong compared to the normal market value.

Questioner

Thanks again for the answer. I checked a few things and see that the same article is offered by other suppliers between €55/€70. So I ordered it for €16.95. Do I understand you correctly if I could have known that the price could not be correct? In other words, is the seller within his rights not to offer me the article for €16.95?

Lawyer

Yes, that is correct, in that case no valid legal act has been concluded.