defect

noun · Mangel / Sachmangel

In sales law a defect is the Sachmangel of § 434 BGB, rebuilt on 1 January 2022: goods are free of defects if at the passing of risk they meet the subjective, the objective and the assembly requirements, cumulatively. The old priority of the agreed quality is gone, so goods can match the specification and still be defective, and Defekt is the machine’s word, not the statute’s.

Which translation, when

Sachmangel, dreigliedrigthe definition: § 434 Abs. 1 BGB declares goods free of defects if, at the passing of risk, they meet the subjective requirements of Abs. 2, the agreed quality, suitability for the use assumed under the contract, agreed accessories and instructions, the objective requirements of Abs. 3, fitness for ordinary use and the usual quality a buyer may expect, and the assembly requirements of Abs. 4; since the 2022 reform the three groups stand cumulatively rather than in a hierarchy, so goods answering the specification can still be defective for falling short of what is usual.

Abweichung nach untenselling below the standard: the parties may depart from the objective requirements, but in a consumer sale only under § 476 Abs. 1 Satz 2 BGB, the consumer being informed before the contract of the specific deviation and the deviation being agreed expressly and separately; recent appellate decisions in 2026 have refused to let a blanket label such as sold as a repair project carry that weight, and burying the point in standard terms does not work either.

Nachbarschaftthe neighbours: the Rechtsmangel of § 435 BGB, third-party rights in the goods, sits beside the Sachmangel and is not covered by it; what follows from a defect, the hierarchy of cure, withdrawal, reduction and damages, belongs to the warranty entry, with the cure claim of § 439 BGB named there as Nacherfüllung; and for goods with digital elements the special provisions of §§ 475b, 475c BGB add their own defect standard.

Why

Defect in a sales contract is the Sachmangel, and the entry earns its place because the German definition was rebuilt on 1 January 2022 when the sale-of-goods directive was implemented. Section 434 Abs. 1 BGB now reads as a legal definition: goods are free of defects if at the passing of risk they correspond to the subjective requirements, the objective requirements and the assembly requirements of the provision. Abs. 2 carries the subjective side, the agreed quality, fitness for the use assumed under the contract, delivery with the agreed accessories and instructions; Abs. 3 the objective side, fitness for the ordinary use and the quality usual in comparable goods which the buyer may expect; Abs. 4 the assembly requirements, covering faulty installation and defective instructions. The reform’s real change is the relationship between them. Under the old law the agreed quality came first and the objective standard only filled gaps; now the three groups must be met cumulatively, so goods that exactly match the written specification can still be defective because they fall short of what is usual in the trade. Selling below the objective standard therefore needs an agreement, and in a consumer sale § 476 Abs. 1 Satz 2 BGB sets a high bar: the consumer must be informed before the contract of the particular way in which the goods deviate, and the deviation must be agreed expressly and separately, a requirement appellate courts in 2026 have enforced against blanket labels in used-vehicle sales. Two boundaries complete the picture: the Rechtsmangel of § 435 BGB covers third-party rights and is a separate category, and what the buyer may do about a defect is the warranty entry’s territory. On the word itself, German legal usage says Mangel, with Sachmangel where the statutory category is meant; Defekt describes a broken machine in everyday speech and has no place in the contractual sentence.

Typical mistakes

Since 2022 the subjective, objective and assembly requirements apply cumulatively, so goods matching the agreed specification can still be defective under § 434 BGB.
Departing from the objective standard in a consumer sale requires prior information about the specific deviation and an express separate agreement, § 476 Abs. 1 Satz 2 BGB, so a blanket disclaimer does not do it.
A Rechtsmangel under § 435 BGB is third-party rights in the goods and a category of its own, so folding it into the Sachmangel misdescribes the claim.

What matters

Reviewing a German sales contract drafted from an English template: the text should use Sachmangel for the statutory category, avoid Defekt, and check whether a quality specification is meant to displace the objective standard, which needs its own wording in consumer sales.

Authority

§ 434 BGB
§ 435 BGB
§ 476 BGB

What the machine misses

A machine rendering of defect reaches for Defekt, the everyday word for a broken appliance, and the statutory category is the Sachmangel of § 434 BGB, since 2022 built on subjective, objective and assembly requirements that apply cumulatively; the calque costs the reader the definition on which every buyer’s remedy in the contract depends.

See what the machine does with this clause →

Examples

the goods are defective	die Ware ist mangelhaft
free from defects	frei von Sachmängeln
the defect appeared after delivery	der Mangel zeigte sich nach der Lieferung
defect of title	Rechtsmangel

More notes on these sections

warranty Gewährleistung

title Eigentum