Comparative law notes
Sachmangel is often translated as "material defect" or "quality defect". The phrase "material defect" is ambiguous because "material" can mean either "matter" or "substance", on the one hand, and "significant", on the other hand. Moreover, since the term "defective" is generic, broad and untethered to any objective standard, we prefer our neologism inasmuch as it incorporates the notion that the actual quality of the item or thing is indeed being compared to a contractual or statutory benchmark (as stated in the Code) rather than some general notion of defectiveness.