Unfair Competition

Subscribe to Unfair Competition

According to the German Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof – “BGH”), companies must substantiate “climate neutral” advertising claims: Where such advertising claims lack sufficient substantiation in direct proximity to the claim, they will likely be considered misleading and, therefore, in breach of the statutory requirements of the German Act against Unfair Commercial Practices (Gesetz…

The Winter 2021 Edition of the quarterly IT & Data Protection Newsletter by Reed Smith Germany has just been released:

English version

German version

In this edition we cover the following topics:

  1. Strengthening fair competition – changes to the law against unfair competition
  2. Cologne Regional Court on the broad concept of the right to access

…

In a press release dated 17 May 2016, the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband – vzbv) announced that on 8 April 2016, the Court of Appeal Berlin (Kammergericht Berlin; “Court”) issued a judgment against WhatsApp Inc., prohibiting WhatsApp the use of English Terms & Conditions on its website for contracts with consumers in Germany, unless German T&Cs are provided as well (“Judgment”). However, the Judgment is not yet binding.
Continue Reading German Court orders WhatsApp to provide consumers in Germany with T&Cs in German language

On March 6, 2012, the Regional Court of Berlin issued a ruling on a case initiated by the Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband, the Federation of German Consumer Organisations, against Facebook Ireland Limited. The court took this rare opportunity to object to several key features of Facebook’s user experience and actions:

  1. The court criticized that users

…