Milczące uznanie żądania konsumenta a rękojmiane obniżenie ceny

Abstract

The Act of 30 May 2014 on Consumer Rights introduced into the Civil Code Article 5615 , which has no equivalent in the provisions of EU directives on the protection of consumer rights. According to Article 5615 of the Civil Code, if the buyer who is a consumer has demanded to have the goods replaced or to have the defect removed or if he/she has made a declaration of price reduction where he/she indicated the sum by which the price is to be reduced, and the seller failed to respond to such demand within the fourteen-day deadline, the seller is deemed to have accepted the demand as justified. The aim of this article is to analyse the seller’s options to defend the demand in court proceeding in the event of the tacit expiration of the fourteen-day deadline, based on legal provisions and case law. The main issue of this analysis is answering the question whether the seller who has not responded to the buyer’s (consumer’s) demand within the statutory time limit can effectively evade liability for the non-compliance of the goods with the contract. In the opinion of the author, if the seller were deprived of the possibility to defend the demand this would be contrary to other provisions on warranty for defects, the purpose of which is to restore the equivalence of parties’ performances or to terminate the legal relationship in which such equivalence is lacking. In addition, the granting of the buyer’s demand as a result of the seller’s silence is a form of improper granting of the demand. This means that the seller may, in court proceedings with the participation of the consumer, challenge the seller’s liability under warranty, including the existence of a defects of the goods.