In the event of incorrect sales documentation and training content, the product providers concerned and their training and sales managers may be held personally liable by the distributors, intermediaries and brokers. The tenth civil chamber of the regional court Augsburg had condemned with final judgement of 29 June 2006 (Az.: 10 O 1933/05) for the first time a selling organization to replace the consultation customer of the mediator the resulted plant damage due to wrong selling information completely. In the case at hand, the head of a sales representative sales department had presented a certain capital investment as safe and profitable to the agents in the course of a product and sales training. With this information, the intermediary persuaded his client to invest. When the bank then repeatedly demanded security deposits, the investor cancelled loans and insurance contracts. Taking into account the surrender value, far less money flowed back than was paid in by the investor. However, the latter was not satisfied with this and demanded the difference back from his consultant. The latter, in agreement with his client, sued for the difference in court and was proved right. The Munich lawyer Dr. Johannes Fiala explains that the sales and training manager is always subject to the obligations of the intermediary to check fiscal, legal and economic plausibility himself. On 28 February 2005, the Federal Court of Justice ruled that an incorrect recommendation to the intermediary for certain conduct is already sufficient to hold the sales or training manager personally liable. The client or employer, i.e. the credit institution, the insurer, the sales organisation, the initiator, the bAV conceptual designer is regularly additionally liable for the sales or training manager from the vicarious liability. On 15 December 2005, the Celle Higher Regional Court gave its final ruling on such a case. There, the head of a sales agent sales force had represented an investment to agents “as safe as a bank investment.” The sales manager, however, had no evidence of this and no technical examination competence.
Further information: Ralf E. Geiling, Tel. (0 21 37) 92 90 70, e-mail: info@ gms-infoservice.de.
(Wirtschaft im Revier 4/2007, 49)
Courtesy ofwww.bochum.ihk.de andwww.gms-infoservice.de
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Dr. Johannes FialaPhD, MBA, MM
Dr. Johannes Fiala has been working for more than 25 years as a lawyer and attorney with his own law firm in Munich. He is intensively involved in real estate, financial law, tax and insurance law. The numerous stages of his professional career enable him to provide his clients with comprehensive advice and to act as a lawyer in the event of disputes.
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