German court overturns eBay buyer conviction
Published September 29th, 2007
A conviction of a German man has been thrown out for purchasing stolen goods on eBay.
The 47-year-old software engineer was convicted of buying stolen goods for a purchase of a GPS system he bought on the auction site in 2005. The new device reportedly was sold as a buy-it-now item for less than one third of its retail list price.
After police determined it was stolen, they arrested the man. A lower court’s ruling found him guilty, making the claim that he should have known it was stolen because the price was so low. He was fined 1200 euros.
On appeal the decision was overturned. A German state court ruled that there was not sufficient evidence to support the idea that the man knew the device was stolen.
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