Unfair Competition Law in Germany

Unfair Competition - Our services for english speaking clients

Germany has a very effective judicial system to ensure your company´s rights in the market. Although a few areas of the german competition law have been subject to liberalisation Germany´s Unfair Competition Law still offers a great chance to efficiently enforce your rights when it comes to misleading advertising, product piracy, illegal use of names and brands or e.g. misleading internet activities (AdWords, AdSense, MetaTags, Doorway Pages).

Cease and Desist Warnings and Preliminary Injunctions by german lawyer

We are experienced in the fast court procedures to enforce your rights by a cease-and-desist warning and Preliminary Injunction. The effective german legal system ensures that the losing party has to pay the legal costs including the attorney´s fees of both parties. Also in most of the cases the party that receives a cease-and-desist warning must take over the attorney´s fees of the opposing party. In many cases of unfair competition the party that has conducted an act of illegal competition will also be subject to a damage claim.

Representation before german courts

Most german courts do have specialized chambers for unfair competition cases and our lawyers are experienced to represent you before all major german courts. The regional courts of Dusseldorf, Koln / Cologne, Essen, Bochum, Dortmund Aachen, Monchengladbach, Duisburg, Bonn, Krefeld,Wuppertal, Hagen, Hamm, Siegen and Koblenz are within a close radius to our base in Dusseldorf and, of course, we also represent clients before many other courts, e.g. Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich.

Typical examples of unfair competition are:

• misleading advertising
• misuse of company and brand names
• aggressive marketing and commercials
• comparative advertising
• wrong pricing information
• misleading internet activities

In many areas special laws set even higher standards for a fair competition including:

• Online Shops and eBay Sellers
• Pharmaceutical companies and Pharmacies
• Medical industry
• Clothing companies
• Food industry
• Car industry
• Cosmetics

Please contact us for more information, our lawyers speak english:

Terhaag & Partner Attorneys
Graf-Adolf-Straße 70, 40210 Duesseldorf
40210 Duesseldorf

Tel. +49-211-16888600
Fax +49-211-16888601
anwalt@aufrecht.de

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