Competition law lays down the rules of the game in the race for the customer’s favour and, as part of consumer protection law, has gained considerable importance in recent years, especially because German law is increasingly overlaid by European law. In addition to „classic“ competition requirements such as the prohibition of misleading advertising, companies today also have to comply with a plethora of legal information obligations that did not exist a few years ago, be it in food law or in e-commerce. Above all, the European standard-setters nowadays make demands on entrepreneurs with regard to the legal design of an (online) shop that not even a lawyer outside the field could completely fulfil; even a supposedly insignificant piece of advice in this specialised matter can have serious consequences if it is wrong. We help you to play by the rules without breaking the rules.
In particular, the Unfair Competition Act (UWG), with its many indeterminate legal terms, gives the courts a wide margin of appreciation. For this reason, it is not uncommon for one and the same business practice to be judged oppositely by different courts. Competition law is above all case law.
It is precisely this complexity that opens up enormous room for manoeuvre when advising clients, and forensic experience pays off particularly well in competition law. We can pass on our experience from several thousand court cases to you, so that you can hold your own in competition. If you have been warned by a competitor or association or would like to put a stop to a competitor’s business practice, we will take care of the legal assessment and the development of a strategy with which we can enforce your interests – be it in the form of a (counter-)warning, the legal enforcement of your cease-and-desist claims or the recovery of damages.
We do not rely on „walk-ins“. Sound advice requires loyalty and competence, especially in competition law; we do not want to (have to) advise something „quickly and cheaply“ without our advice being based on a concept for the further market appearance. In doing so, we do not solve problems, but create new ones – certainly unnoticed at first. Our clients appreciate the fact that we take advantage of the available leeway and discuss the possible risks with them in advance, be it in the opening of a new business field or in the conception of an advertising strategy.
The multi-layered facets of competition law include, among others:
- Disparagement in the relationship with competitors
- discrimination and boycott
- unfair imitation and exploitation of reputation
- Sweepstakes and contests
- Misleading advertising (e.g. bait offers, moon prices, deception about the origin or stock of goods)
- Misleading price quotations
- Image advertising
- Harassing advertising (e.g. e-mail spam, advertising calls)
- Advertising with self-evident facts
- Comparative advertising
- Protection of ideas
- Betrayal of trade and business secrets (protection of secrets)
- Procedural strategies (warning, cease-and-desist declaration, preliminary injunction, protective letter, action for injunction, negative declaratory action, abuse of rights)
