Joselyne Ntikahavuye

In a judgement dated 11 February 2025 - 15 O 287/24, the Regional Court of Berlin II dealt with dark patterns in detail.

The warning association IDO has suffered its first serious setback before the BGH. Due to its lack of registration as a qualified trade association, the IDO can no longer enforce the judgements or injunctions it has obtained.

The LG Berlin II requires the material to be mentioned again in the order overview for online sales of clothing.

In its judgement of 03.04.2025 - 4 U 29/24, the Higher Regional Court of Hamm confirmed the obvious on the interpretation of the JuSchG and made an exciting decision on the presentation requirements for the competitor position in a warning letter.

In a judgement dated 14 March 2025 - 7 HK O 50/23, which was obtained by HÄRTING Rechtsanwälte, the Regional Court of Trier ruled that a cease-and-desist declaration obtained by the IDO Interessenverband für das Rechts- und Finanzconsulting deutscher Online-Unternehmen e.V. (IDO) could be effectively terminated due to abuse of rights. Exceptionally, this cancellation also had retroactive effect on a contractual penalty that had already been claimed but not yet paid. The court found that the IDO may not demand contractual penalties because it lacks the authority to issue warnings as long as it is not entered in the list of trade associations of the Federal Office of Justice.

When does a customer review become advertising that must be attributed to the provider of a product? German courts have been dealing with this question for quite some time. The Bochum Regional Court (judgement of 21 November 2024 - 14 O 65/24) now had to decide in the case of a coffee roasting company, thereby supplementing the prevailing case law.

The rental costs for the additionally booked router must be listed in the contract summary for Internet and landline tariff contracts. This was decided by the Higher Regional Court of Cologne in its judgement of 10.01.2025 - 6 U 68/24.

The Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf (judgment of July 6, 2023 - 20 U 72/22) has ruled that a product advertisement with the claim "climate neutral" must not leave the consumer in doubt as to whether this climate neutrality is already achieved during the manufacturing process or only through compensatory measures.

A trade association is only authorised to initiate regulatory proceedings if it is registered in the lists of the UWG reform by the Federal Office of Justice (BfJ).