The Internet is an increasing market. Together with the advantages of the European Single Market more and more sellers want to provide their services and goods also in other member states, and the Internet with its transnational character is the perfect platform to advertise and to be found.
But as in every state and not at least due the European legislation every competitor in the market has to stick to the legal rules which shall ensure fair competition.
To ensure this, German law is quite restrictive compared to other legal orders. Here the competitor is obliged to stick to a big number of information duties, and if he doesn`t he has to deal with serious legal consequences. Due to the idea of private enforcement german law allows other competitors to fight these infringements. In this case the violator has to compensate the caused damages and the fee for the lawyer, whose service the competitor had to call on. This can easily sum up to an amount of several hundred Euros.
But the situation can become even worse. The violator has also to declare that in the future he will refrain from further violations and accept that otherwise he`ll pay a contract penalty which can easily sum up to an amount of several thousand Euros. For small expanding companies this can endanger their economic existence. Because of this risk it`s even more important to modify this declaration.
The best advice here is of course to avoid such problems from the very beginning by providing the required information early. As experienced lawyers in this field you can call us any time for professional help. But even if you receive a "cease-and-desist-letter" (in German: "Abmahnung") from a competitor, we can still help you by trying to modify the declaration (in German: "Unterlassungserklärung") in a way which allows you to avoid risks in the German market. Furthermore, the amount of money which you are meant to pay can be minimized, not rarely we already achieved serious minimizations for our clients on this aspect.
Find more information on www.haftungsrecht.com
Rechtsanwälte in Bürogemeinschaft
Jorma Hein | Philipp Achilles | Albina Bechthold
Tel.: 06421-309788-0
Fax.: 06421-309788-99
E-Mail: kontakt@haftungsrecht.com
