Possible liability (and time limits on) for selling counterfeit media

Question

Seller Sally is selling some ostensibly old and rare CDs containing music by a famous band. She claims that the record label supplied them to her directly for promotion when she was working for a radio station decades ago.

These particular CDs are unknown of among collectors: verifying their authenticity is difficult.

Buyer Bob trusts Sally's story and buys the CDs.

Several years later Bob obtains very compelling evidence that the CDs are in fact counterfeit: the record label never produced them.

What legal recourse does Bob have, and for how long? Is there anything Bob can do when buying the CDs from Sally to lock her into some liability so that Sally is deincentivised from selling them in case she is lying?

Answer 1

Misrepresentation

Sally has misrepresented the CDs as being something they are not, knowingly or unknowingly. This gives Bob grounds for having the contract set aside and getting his money back.

How long Bob has to take this action depends on the statute of limitations applying to the contract. For example, in australia, the limit is 6 years from the date of the breach. If instead, the contract had been executed as a deed, the periods are longer - from 12 to 20 years depending on the state.