Buying from a private seller online, by country
Buying from a private person on a marketplace usually falls outside the consumer-sale statutes, because all nine laws here are written for a seller who acts as a business. Australia ties its acceptable-quality guarantee to supply in trade or commerce, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Norway to a trader or business seller, and Japan to a person who contracts as a business or for business purposes. Two laws go one step further for sellers who only look like businesses: France extends its sales chapter to anyone presenting or behaving as a professional, and Norway makes a business representative jointly liable with the seller unless the buyer was told the representative was only an intermediary.
| Country | Who must the seller be for the consumer rules to apply? | Statute's rule for private, mixed or intermediary sellers |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | A person supplying goods in trade or commerce | Sales by auction are excluded from the acceptable-quality guarantee |
| Austria | A business (Unternehmer) selling to a consumer | |
| Germany | A business (Unternehmer) selling goods to a consumer | In a sale between two consumers they may agree that quantity, quality and similar features are not part of the usual condition |
| Spain | A business (empresario) dealing with a consumer | |
| France | A professional seller selling goods to a consumer | Also anyone presenting or behaving as a professional |
| Japan | A business (jigyōsha): a company or other body, or an individual contracting as or for a business | An individual not contracting as or for a business is a consumer, not a business |
| Netherlands | A seller acting in the course of a trade, business, craft or profession | |
| Norway | A seller (or the seller's representative) acting in business | A representative acting in business is jointly liable with the seller unless the buyer was told it was only an intermediary |
| Sweden | A business (näringsidkare) selling to a consumer |
Country by country
Australia
- Rule
- Competition and Consumer Act 2010, Schedule 2 (ACL), s 54
- The guarantee is that goods are of acceptable quality; the section does not mention private sellers at all, so the quoted words are the only basis for the value shown.
a person supplies, in trade or commerce, goods to a consumerthe supply does not occur by way of sale by auctionthere is a guarantee that the goods are of acceptable quality Austria
- Rule
- Verbrauchergewährleistungsgesetz § 1
- Section 1(3) extends only § 7 (a provision on conformity) to contracts between two businesses; the section says nothing about private sellers, so that column is blank.
Dieses Bundesgesetz gilt für zwischen Unternehmern und Verbrauchern (§ 1 KSchG) geschlossene Verträge Germany
- Rule
- BGB §§ 474 and 434
- Section 474 defines the consumer-goods sale. A sale between private persons is still a sale under the BGB, but without the supplementary consumer rules of that subtitle.
- Used goods sold at a public auction are outside the supplementary rules if the consumer was clearly told so.
Verbrauchsgüterkäufe sind Verträge, durch die ein Verbraucher von einem Unternehmer eine Ware (§ 241a Absatz 1) kauft. in einem Kaufvertrag zwischen Verbrauchern können die Unternehmer oder Verbraucher vereinbaren, dass Menge, Qualität oder eines oder mehrere der in Satz 2 genannten sonstigen Merkmale nicht zu der üblichen Beschaffenheit der Sache gehören Spain
- Rule
- LGDCU art. 2
- Article 2 sets the scope of the whole law as relations between consumers and businesses; the sales title (art. 114 onward) is not quoted for any rule on private sellers, so that column is blank.
Está norma será de aplicación a las relaciones entre consumidores o usuarios y empresarios. France
- Rule
- Code de la consommation, art. L217-1
- The chapter covers sales of tangible movable goods; it also treats as sales contracts where the goods are exchanged for another benefit instead of a price.
entre un vendeur professionnel, ou toute personne se présentant ou se comportant comme tel, et un acheteur agissant en qualité de consommateur Japan
- Rule
- 消費者契約法 第二条
- The Consumer Contract Act covers consumer contracts in general, not only sales of goods, and the quoted definitions decide whether a private seller counts as a business.
「事業者」とは、法人その他の団体及び事業として又は事業のために契約の当事者となる場合における個人をいう。「消費者契約」とは、消費者と事業者との間で締結される契約をいう。 Netherlands
- Rule
- BW boek 7, art. 5
- The buyer must be a natural person acting outside a business or profession. The article defines the consumer sale; it does not state what happens to a private seller, so that column is blank.
consumentenkoop: de koop met betrekking tot een roerende zaak die wordt gesloten door een verkoper die handelt in het kader van zijn handels-, bedrijfs-, ambachts- of beroepsactiviteit Norway
- Rule
- Forbrukerkjøpsloven § 1
- A consumer is a natural person not mainly acting as part of a business. The joint liability of the representative does not apply when the seller itself acts in business.
Med forbrukerkjøp menes salg av ting til en forbruker når selgeren eller selgerens representant opptrer i næringsvirksomhet.Representant som opptrer i næringsvirksomhet er solidarisk ansvarlig med selgeren for dennes forpliktelser dersom ikke forbrukeren blir gjort uttrykkelig oppmerksom på at representanten bare opptrer som mellommann og ikke er solidarisk ansvarlig med selgeren. Sweden
- Rule
- Konsumentköplag 1 kap. 1 §
- The section describes the scope of chapters 2 to 8 of the act. It does not state a rule for private sellers, so that column is blank.
vid köp av varor där köparen är konsument och säljaren är näringsidkare Countries not in this table yet
The United States, the United Kingdom and Canada are not shown: their consumer-sale statutes on this point are not among the ingested texts. The table shows the scope rule only, not what a private seller owes under general contract law.
How this table was built
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LawAsked, “Buying from a private seller online, by country”, https://lawasked.com/guides/marketplace-seller-liability (reviewed October 25, 2026).
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