Fueling for a cent – do you have to pay for errors?

Presumably because of a technical defect, it could be conveniently refueled at a self -service petrol station in the Ravensburg district at night: all varieties only cost one cent per liter. Word has to get around how cheap the fuel was. Around four in the morning the police ended the low -cost tank, it became aware because long snakes had formed. According to the police, between 2500 and 3000 liters of fuel were pumped out. Accordingly, the damage should be between 4300 and 5200 euros.

Ethically speaking, exploiting the defect is hardly better than taking a “freely” bicycle. But what does it look legal? In the case of the petrol station, the case is different than in the supermarket. There are regular inconsistencies when the prices awarded to the goods are lower than those that are stored in the cash register. The situation is completely different: the handover of the goods has not yet taken place. The customer claims the higher price at the cash register, but he has the choice whether he acquires the product at a higher price – or whether he leaves it. There is no entitlement to the cheap price.

Regardless of whether the price at the petrol station was created by a technical error or by manipulation: it is an incorrectly issued invoice and it can be corrected afterwards. In addition, customers have certainly noticed the wrong price. If the fuel had been ten cents cheaper, the low price for a bargain could have been traded – the error is obvious at a price of one cent per liter.

However, there is no criminal liability. Here an obvious mistake is exploited for your own advantage, but de Jure is not a theft and probably not a fraud. Section 263 was also about illegal asset advantage if you not only make an error, but maintain a mistake by suppressing true facts, but that seems to be a bit far after an automated payment process.

However, you do not legally benefit from such mistakes. So even if the company transfers 250,000 euros instead of a salary of 2500 net, you shouldn’t keep the money. The same applies to false bookings that go into the account. Apart from the usual limitation periods, the money paid too much must be returned.

In practice it can look different. The operator of the petrol station can replace the incorrectly issued invoice with correctly, and it must then be paid. Petrol stations monitor your system with cameras, it can be assumed that every tank process has been recorded. The operator can therefore act against the cheap tankers. The location is simple, but whether the whole thing is worth it for him is another question. The determination of the car owners and possibly the determination of different drivers, the switching on of a lawyer are costs for the operator who is not all-capable if there was no criminal offense, as was the case with the theft-without paying. Depending on the amount, the damage should be between 50 and 150 euros per vehicle. Even if the total damage is large, the individual items are so low that it makes little sense to demand the money.