Finland - Supreme Court precedent provides detail on the conclusion of a distance selling agreement

A precedent handed down by the Supreme Court provides additional detail on the conclusion of a distance selling agreement between a consumer and a business. An agency agreement concerning a used car was deemed to have been concluded as a distance selling agreement, thereby entitling the consumer to cancel it.

The consumer had completed an assignment form on the website of a company that acts as an agent for used cars from the German market. The information entered in the form specified what vehicle the consumer was interested in. In response to the submission of the form, the company contacted the consumer by e-mail and telephone. Based on this correspondence, an agreement on the agency assignment for a car and a horse trailer was concluded between the consumer and the business. Subsequently both parties to the transaction deemed that the agreement was void, each with their own grounds. After this, the dispute was over whether the consumer was liable to compensate the business for the costs of preparatory work for delivering the service.

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