Tesla quietly deletes Cybertruck anti-scalping clause from sales contract

Earlier this week, news broke about a clause in the Tesla order agreement that would require future Cybertruck buyers to give Tesla first right of refusal if they wanted to sell their electric pickup within a year after purchasing it. According to the agreement [PDF], Tesla would pursue legal action seeking damages to the tune of US$5,000 if Cybertruck owners ignored the clause.

Now, it has been revealed by InsideEVs that this clause has since been silently removed from the order agreement. As one might expect, Tesla has not commented on the decision to remove the clause, but it's possible that the legal team is reworking the language for re-release at a later date. Tesla could also be responding to the mixed online responses to the clause, although that seems unlikely.

The language basically meant that Cybertruck owners had to seek permission from Tesla to sell their vehicle if they sold it during the first year of ownership. It also put them at the mercy of Tesla when it comes to the resale price — and we all know how generous car dealerships are when it comes to trade-ins and purchase offers.

At the end of the day, this sort of clause in an order agreement is meant to deter scalpers from buying up all of the initial — and, more importantly, limited — production units and flipping them at a massive premium.

It could well be that Tesla tipped its hand a little too much when it updated the order agreement with the language, as it gave the world a pretty good look at what the rate of depreciation and the initial sale price would be. It's probable that Tesls will once again update the Cybertruck's order agreement with similar anti-scalping language once the delivery even has taken place and the final sale price is announced.

It's almost guaranteed that Tesla's removal of the language wasn't because these sorts of agreements are legally questionable, because Ford has already proved that they can be won if pursued when the company sued John Cena for selling his Ford GT. More recently, Ford also demonstrated that buyers wouldn't be deterred by these clauses when it imposed similar restrictions on the Ford F-150 Lightning.

The Tesla Cybertruck is pitched to finally launch on November 30, potentially alongside the overhauled FSD v12 that is expected to make the automated-driving software much more natural.