According to this newspaper (Reporter Liu Yang, Correspondent Wen Qi), the promotional page for a large-scale stage play stated that "reservation is required one day in advance" and "admission 30 minutes in advance", but consumer Li bought the same-day ticket through the online platform 12 minutes before the show started. Tickets, does this situation constitute a major misunderstanding? Recently, the People's Court of Shapingba District, Chongqing heard the sales contract dispute case and ruled that a cultural development company in Chongqing should refund Li's ticket purchase price of 1,000 yuan.
At 10:18 on January 25, 2023, Li purchased 4 tickets for a large-scale stage play in Shapingba District that was performed at 10:30 that day through the WeChat applet, paying a price of 1,296 yuan. When Li placed the order and paid, it was less than 12 minutes before the performance started. At this time, Li was accompanying his mother Zhang to the hospital in Banan District. The drive from the hospital to the performance venue took at least 40 minutes. After realizing the mistake in purchasing the ticket, Li immediately negotiated with customer service to change the date, but was rejected. Li then sued a Chongqing Cultural Development Co., Ltd. to the court.
The stage play’s promotion page on the Douyin platform shows that “reservation is required one day in advance”, and the instructions for viewing the WeChat mini program state that “in order to ensure timely viewing of the performance, please fully reserve time and enter 30 minutes in advance. If you are late, you will not be able to enter." Li said that the above promotional content led him to mistakenly believe that the system would not sell tickets for the same day's performance less than 30 minutes before the opening, so when he placed an order on the same day, he mistakenly thought that he was buying tickets for the next day.
After hearing the case, the court held that based on the WeChat consumption records and outpatient cases shown by Li, it could be confirmed that Li ordered and purchased four performance tickets while accompanying his mother to see a doctor in Banan District. On the one hand, Li's mother's test results have not been released, and Li's risk of fulfilling the contract is minimal. On the other hand, Li cannot rush from Banan District to Shapingba District in a short time to perform the contract. Therefore, from a normal and rational perspective, it is not possible to You should and will not pay fares for a contract that is objectively impossible to perform, unless there is a major misunderstanding. Combined with the evidence such as the record of the plaintiff’s telephone contact with the defendant within a short period of time after purchasing the tickets, it should be determined that the plaintiff had a major misunderstanding about the time of the performance tickets it purchased.
According to the provisions of the Civil Code, the actor has a misunderstanding about the nature of the act, the other party or the variety, quality, specification, price, quantity, etc. of the subject matter. It is generally understood that if the misunderstanding did not occur, the actor would not have made the corresponding intention. expressed, can be deemed as a major misunderstanding. If the actor can prove that he had a major misunderstanding when performing a civil legal act and requests to revoke the civil legal act, the people's court shall support it. However, the plaintiff had subjective fault for the cancellation of the contract and should bear certain liability for the loss of trust interests of the counterparty of the contract. The court accordingly ruled that a Chongqing Cultural Development Co., Ltd. should refund the 1,000 yuan purchased by Li for the ticket. (Liu Yang Wen Qi)
(People’s Court Newspaper)
