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In a ruling of 27 May 2014 (case no. VI ZR 153/13), the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) decided once again that, when considering whether a comment should be classified as disparaging, the comment must always be interpreted in the context in which it was made. Comments must not be interpreted in isolation or out of context. Even though the comment in the case at hand was published in a newspaper, the ruling is also relevant to the interpretation of comments made on television or in other audiovisual media. The plaintiff, who edits a German daily newspaper, was interviewed by the...

As of 13 June 2014, German consumers are entitled to cancel purchases of software, music, videos and apps downloaded from the Internet. The change is designed to implement Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU, which aims to create a common, reliable standard of consumer protection across Europe. The amendment to the law on consumer cancellation rights itself does not contain any express regulation giving consumers the right to cancel purchases of intangible, digital content downloaded from the Internet. Rather, the introduction of such a right is demonstrated by the fact that such rights are restricted...

At its meeting on 3 April 2014, the Wahlprüfungsausschuss (Election Scrutiny Board) of the German Bundestag (lower house of parliament) decided to recommend that the Bundestag reject as unfounded a protest against the validity of the 18th German Bundestag election of 22 September 2013. On 22 November 2013, a citizen of the Bavarian town of Fürstenfeldbruck had faxed a protest against the validity of the Bundestag election of 22 September 2013. He had protested on the grounds that, in the 1,448th episode of the TV series “Lindenstraße”, entitled “Leistungsträger”, which was broadcast on the evening...

On 13 May 2014, the German media authorities’ Kommission für Zulassung und Aufsicht (Commission on Licensing and Supervision - ZAK) ruled that reporting principles had been violated in the “Kabel eins” programme “Abenteuer Leben” on 20 March 2013. The ZAK considered that the report had given the impression that a factory in Holland used horsemeat to produce a special type of Dutch sausage (known as “Frikandellen”) because the “original recipe” included 5% horse meat. The report had also claimed that the factory was owned by a Dutch company. However, both statements had turned out to be false. The...

According to an inspection of 14 video and music streaming services by the Bundesverband der Verbraucherzentrale (Federation of German Consumer Organisations - vzbv), a total of 130 of the general terms and conditions used by the service providers were unlawful because they put consumers at an unreasonable disadvantage. The vzbv has announced that it has so far cautioned 20 operators including Napster, Watchever, Spotify, Simfy and Amazon. As well as clauses restricting users’ warranty rights or operators’ liability, the vzbv questioned the operators’ right to block or withdraw their services at...