Of
Franz Kotteder
Reserved Oktoberfest tables may not be resold: According to the plaintiff, the Munich Higher Regional Court confirmed a decision of the lower court from last autumn on Thursday morning. In this case, the Ochsenbraterei had sued an event agency that had offered reservations at greatly inflated prices on the Internet. For all Oktoberfest hosts, the judgment is an important milestone in the long-standing fight against the resale of reservations.
Extortionate prices are not uncommon in these cases. Various agencies offer such overpriced Oktoberfest tables. They buy directly from the tents, presumably with the help of straw men, and then pass on the reservation confirmations to online buyers with a hefty surcharge. The terms and conditions of all Wiesn landlords therefore contain clauses that exclude disclosure and link the reservation to a specific person. If the person making the reservation is not present, then it is no longer valid. Anyone who buys a Oktoberfest table for overpriced money on the Internet is often even the fool and has paid for nothing in the end.
The decision of the Higher Regional Court is groundbreaking in this respect. The event agency based in Chemnitz and Munich, against which the Ochsenbraterei had sued, operates the website tischreservierung-oktoberfest.de and charged up to 3,300 euros per table of ten. Normal prices for the individual Wiesn tents are around 500 euros, depending on the offer, this includes drink and meal vouchers for beer and chicken or entire menus.
The 3rd chamber for commercial matters of the Munich I district court decided in October last year that the resale of Oktoberfest tables was not legal. The event agency’s offer is “misleading” and violates the law against unfair competition. After all, the customer has no legal right to a reservation after the purchase. Finally, the Ochsenbraterei expressly stated in their personalized reservation confirmations that the reservations are not transferable and commercial resales are prohibited. The event agency had appealed against the judgment at the time.