Retail: Lawsuit against Lidl app dismissed – court not competent
The consumer protection agency sees the discount app of the food retailer Lidl as discrimination against some customers. However, a lawsuit filed by the association is now going nowhere.
In Brandenburg an der Havel, a court dismissed a lawsuit against Lidl's app claiming discrimination. The Oberlandesgericht declared itself not competent to handle the case. The Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (vzbv) sued Lidl and its "Lidl Plus" app, arguing that the app's discounts discriminated against older, disabled, or younger individuals.
The plaintiffs requested Lidl to stop offering discounts through the app, claiming that the discounts violated the principle of equal treatment. However, the Verbraucherzentrale argued that the dispute should be addressed under the General Equal Treatment Act, which deals with unequal treatment in civil law relationships. The court clarified that this specific legal provision does not address consumer protection.
Consequently, the case should not proceed to the Oberlandesgericht and should instead be handled by the Landgerichte, the court of first instance.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
