Schlussbericht über das Projekt: "Wettbewerbsrechtliche ... - vzbv

Wettberbsrechtliche Kontrolle von grenzüberschreitenden 33 Marketingmaßnahmen vzbv 2001
Anhang I: Vortrag über das Projekt auf der IMSN-Konferenz in Bern (12. – 14.
September 2001)
Project by the Federation of German Consumer Organizations on
Cross-border Advertising
Due to the globalization and liberalization of markets over the past few years more
and more companies straddle international frontiers in their operations. Many
companies shifted their offices to neighboring European countries and target their
offers on German consumers via conventional media or via the Internet. This practice
caused an additional control requirement for consumer organizations in Germany.
Against this background, the Federal Ministry of Economics approved a 2-year
project by the Federation of German Consumer Organizations focusing on the task of
scrutinizing advertising material mailed to Germany in terms of consumer protection
and to legally restrain it. The project is to run until the end of 2001, but some results
have already emerged I would like to briefly present to you.
First to the legal background behind the activities of the Federation of German
Consumer Organizations:
The federation is a non-governmental organization authorized by law to issue
cautions for fraudulent advertising or competitive behaviour to the detriment of
consumers. This caution takes the form of a notice in writing to the company setting
out the statutory offence coupled with the demand to issue a so-called declaration of
forbearance liable to sanctions. This declaration is a civil contract in which the
company undertakes to refrain from the objectionable act and to pay a contractual
penalty to the federation in the event of infringement. Once the company has issued
this declaration, the affair is settled for the time being. Otherwise the federation files a
suit against the company requesting the court to order the company to discontinue
the abuse to which objection was made. (This much for my introduction into German
law for today).
To date, 100 foreign companies have been cautioned within the framework of this
project. Only in 13 cases did this out-of-court caution procedure end in the making of
a forbearance declaration by the company. In 17 cases an action for an injunction
was filed, of which 6 have meanwhile been settled through a verdict. 34 out-of-court
caution procedures had to be stopped as those responsible could not be identified.
36 out-of-court procedures are still under way.
Thematic areas
The objectionable advertising mainly came from the following fields: fax advertising,
advertising for slimming products and sweepstake advertising.