Negative seller rating deleted without comment | Rating

25.07.1966 · 2026-02-15T16:11:01.726000Z

Hello!On the internet and also on this website, one can find some information about legal remedies against negative seller ratings on sales platforms; there are already some judgments that move in the tension between conflicting interests and weigh them against each other with particular consideration of Article 5 of the Basic Law. These judgments often rest on a request for deletion by the seller, which is usually “discussed” beforehand between the parties (e.g. request for correction/revision, opportunity to comment before a decision by the online auction house, etc.). But what is the legal position if an online auction house, on its own initiative, deletes a factual negative seller rating based on evident facts without comment, without first giving the buyer an opportunity to revise it and without even stating a reason for doing so or even providing a note that the deletion has taken place? Is such a procedure by the online auction house compatible with Article 5 of the Basic Law? Following scenario: A customer orders a low-budget electronic item in the low double-digit euro range via an online auction house from a provider who is actually based in the Far East and who only has some warehouse or shipping service here in Germany. Shipping costs are a major factor here, and the seller wants everything, but by no means does he want to accept any returns. The customer notices that the delivered item does not work as promised and wants to return the item, asks for the item to be taken back and for instructions for the return shipment; the seller’s real name and, in particular, the return address are completely unknown to the buyer, and the goods delivery was accompanied by no information or invoice/delivery note. The seller neither sends a return slip nor replies at all, but instead refunds only 50% of the purchase price with the evidently untrue statement of fact that the item was not returned in its original condition.The buyer finds this procedure by the seller completely inappropriate; a negative rating of the seller follows, with a factual and non-insulting description of the above experience and a warning about this seller and his evidently unlawful business practices. A case was also opened with the online auction house and the situation was presented as described above. A short time later, the online auction house decided the case in favor of the buyer and paid the remaining 50% itself (not the seller!) and justified this as follows: "Since your satisfaction is very important to us and we know that not everything always works smoothly, we have issued you a one-time gesture of goodwill credit." So far, so good for the buyer - just got lucky again thanks to the grace of " ... one-time gesture of goodwill... " of the online auction house. No further information or hints about this case were communicated by the online auction house to the buyer. The buyer then took a closer look at the seller’s ratings to see whether there had been similar incidents in the past, i.e. whether the seller had already stood out with such unlawful business practices. To the buyer’s surprise, his published negative seller rating created on the same day had been deleted as if by magic. The 99% positive ratings suddenly became 100% positive ratings again, with no trace left of the seller’s unlawful business practices. This annoys the buyer even more, because in his view this unjustified deletion of his negative rating/buyer experience not only manipulated the authenticity of buyer experiences and undermined the integrity of the marketplace/online auction house, but also infringed his fundamental right to freedom of expression. Angrily, the buyer picks up the phone and tells the online auction house’s hotline the whole story. The hotline can not only verify the entire process 1:1 in accordance with the description and confirm that the buyer’s entire account is correct. In addition, the hotline can also provide no explanation for the commentless deletion of the negative seller rating. The online auction house diligently ignores the buyer’s repeated phone and written requests to reverse the deletion of the negative seller rating. The general question now is what legal remedies are available in such a case and how this process is to be assessed overall. And no, the buyer does not want to let the matter rest. The entire rating system is rendered absurd if one cannot point out a seller’s unlawful practices. In fact, it should be in the online auction house’s own interest that “bad apples” among sellers can be identified and avoided.

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Negative seller rating deleted without comment | Rating | eBay Germany