In the fight against the resale of Oktoberfest reservations for sometimes thousands of euros, the operator of the Ochsenbraterei marquee was victorious in court. The district court Munich I sentenced an event agency, which had offered the tables in spring 2020 at prices between 1990 and 3299, to refrain from doing so in the future. In addition, it must provide information about its sources and the extent of the sales and is generally obliged to pay compensation. However, the judgment is not yet final.
Normally there are no separate costs for reservations at the Oktoberfest, but those making reservations have to purchase food vouchers. At the Ochsenbraterei, according to the court, these amount to a maximum of around 400 euros for a table with ten people – a fraction of the price requested by the event agency.
The court found the event agency’s offer to be “misleading” and a violation of the Unfair Competition Act. The provider could not give his customers any legal right to a reservation. In its general terms and conditions, the Ochsenbraterei prohibits the resale of table reservations to commercial resellers.
This resale prohibition was effective, the court found – among other things because the reservation was personalized and contained an indication that it was not transferable. The facts are different from a ruling by the Federal Court of Justice from 2008, which the event agency relied on and which dealt with the resale of Bundesliga tickets.
In addition, the court emphasized that the sale ban pursues a “creditable purpose”, namely “to ensure a socially acceptable price structure and thus enable less affluent citizens to have equal access to the Oktoberfest as possible”.