A Muscovite mistakenly bought almost 200 products from a marketplace: she had to sue

The client accidentally made a purchase for 113 thousand rubles

A persistent Muscovite managed to punish the marketplace for writing off money for returning an erroneously registered product. The court ordered the trading aggregator to return the funds, as well as pay a fine and compensation for moral damage. The platform violated the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights, according to which the buyer, when making a purchase on the marketplace, has the right to refuse it at any time before receipt, and after receipt – within 7 days.

As MK managed to find out, in April 2023, Muscovite Anna (name changed) was engaged in virtual shopping on a popular marketplace. When placing a purchase for one product, the entire contents of the virtual cart were accidentally included in the order. The client received a notification that she had purchased 196 products for 113 thousand rubles! Almost immediately, the woman contacted the support service with a request to cancel the order placed by mistake. However, the aggregator refused to record the cancellation and started the picking and delivery process.

When the goods arrived at the pick-up point, the client did not pick them up – this is permitted by the rules. However, in the end, the marketplace charged her money for returning purchases to suppliers. 11,500 rubles were written off from Anna’s bank card, and a debt of 8,500 rubles accumulated in her personal account.

In early May, a woman sent a claim to the trading platform demanding the return of the illegally debited money. But she didn’t receive an answer. Then the indignant buyer went to court. She demanded that the aggregator return the funds, as well as pay a fine and compensation for moral damage.

The case was considered by the magistrate of the 188th precinct in the Troparevo-Nikulino district. The servant of Themis came to the conclusion that the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights clearly interprets the situation in favor of the plaintiff. The buyer informed the marketplace about the cancellation of the order. The site representative, in turn, did not provide information as to why it was impossible to record this cancellation. The speed of the client’s request in this case did not matter: by law, she can refuse the purchase at any time before receiving the goods. True, also, by law, the buyer must reimburse the seller for expenses incurred in the process of executing the contract. In particular, this includes delivery.

However, the plaintiff provided evidence that she informed the site about the cancellation of the order 8 minutes after placing it – before all 196 goods were transferred for delivery. And the defendant could not prove that at the time of receiving this information he had incurred any costs associated with the transfer of the goods. Therefore, the court came to the conclusion that the plaintiff’s demands were legal and decided to satisfy them.

The judge ruled that the marketplace must return the written-off money to the client in the amount of 11,500 rubles, cancel the debt in her personal account and pay Anna compensation for moral damages in the amount of 5,000 rubles. In addition, the defendant was ordered to pay a fine for not making a voluntary return of funds – 8,250 rubles.