All,
I happen to be in Germany now (Braunschweig, for those who care)
and nextdoor is a lawyer's office. I printed some of the emails
from this thread, and showed them (after asking whether
they had
time to look at them, of course..)
Basically, their answers were:
1. Yes, this (German) law is real, and it is enforced, too.
2. Yes, it applies to all EU countries, although member countries
are allowed to amend the (EU) law, as Germany and Holland did.
3. Yes, this only goes for *business-to-consumer* transactions.
So, if you buy your new (well, almost ;-) UNIVAC off ePay, it must
be explicitly noted (in both the auction page *and* the final
invoice) that this is a private sale (see Ed's comment), or else
(by default) it is a business sale to a consumer, which means
"the" law is in effect.
This would have an impact on dealers only, I guess, such as Ed
Kelleher, as they do "regular" business sales on ePay, but not
on private sales, such as JoeR sellimg me his RL11.
Cheers,
Fred