Flour instead of laptop: package service sentenced to compensation

Compensation for the private seller of an Apple MacBook Pro: The Munich District Court has in Judgment with the file number 123 C 14610/24 from September 26, 2024 the parcel service blamed for the disappearance of the notebook. The company must not only replace the sender’s sales price, but also the postage and legal fees.

What happened? Shortly before Christmas 2023, a private individual from the Munich area sold a brand new Apple MacBook Pro 2023 to a company for just under 3000 euros. The next day, the seller brought the device to an original packaging and a neutral cardboard to an outer packaging into a branch of the parcel service and insured the package with 3500 euros. However, when the package was opened in the shipping department of the buyer shortly after Christmas, there were only three packages of flour in the package – no trace from the MacBook.

The sender then tried to assert the damage to the parcel service, according to the reasoning to us: in his opinion, the shipment was opened on the transport route and the notebook was exchanged for three packs of flour. But the parcel service rejected the claim, so that the lawsuit and finally the process before the Munich District Court – but the parcel service considered not responsible. The company referred to the general terms and conditions, according to which the place of jurisdiction was agreed as the place of jurisdiction at the company’s headquarters.

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