Abmahnung: enforcement by competitors
In German law, unfair competition is policed largely through private hands: under the UWG, competitors and authorised bodies send a warning letter to a seller acting unlawfully, demanding that the infringement be remedied, a cease-and-desist undertaking (Unterlassungserklärung) backed by a contractual penalty, and attorney costs. Important exception: since the 2020 Act to Strengthen Fair Competition, a competitor’s claim for attorney costs is excluded outright under § 13(4) UWG for breaches of information and labelling duties committed in electronic commerce or digital services — including a missing Impressum; the warning letter must say so (§ 13(2) no. 5), and if costs are nevertheless demanded the recipient acquires a claim for its own defence costs (§ 13(5)). Nor may a contractual penalty be agreed on a first warning against businesses with fewer than 100 employees (§ 13a(2)). The first step is therefore not to negotiate the costs but to check whether the cost claim arose at all. This mechanism has turned externally detectable infringements, such as website gaps, into an industrialised revenue model — and stores selling from Türkiye are easy targets because their texts are incomplete.
Practical guidance
The deadlines in a warning letter are real and short (often 1-2 weeks). Missing the deadline takes the matter to court and to a preliminary injunction — and the costs multiply.
A preventive setup against Abmahnung
We audit your Germany storefront across the 7 warning-letter topics and build the text set, German included; if a warning letter has already arrived, we take over the response.
The 7 most common warning-letter topics
1. Missing Impressum (§5 DDG): company name, address, e-mail, register and VAT numbers — if absent, the first warning letter comes from here. 2. Withdrawal information (Widerrufsbelehrung): incomplete or outdated text, absence of the model form. 3. Price display (PAngV): missing unit price (Grundpreis), errors in shipping-inclusive display, discount labels contrary to Omnibus. 4. Cookie and consent violations (TDDDG §25). 5. Accessibility — a new wave of warning letters since 2025 with the BFSG. 6. Product labels and information: textile fibre composition, GPSR responsible person, missing CE/warning items. 7. Trademark and image infringements: using someone else’s product photos, unauthorised trademark use.
If a warning letter arrives: 5 steps
(1) Put the deadline on the calendar — ignoring it is the most expensive option. (2) Have the sender’s standing and the seriousness of the warning verified (serial/abusive warning letters can be weeded out). (3) Never sign the demanded undertaking as-is: a modified undertaking with narrowed scope and a balanced contractual penalty is possible in most cases. (4) Actually remedy the infringement — a repeat after the undertaking means a contractual penalty. (5) Open the cost item to negotiation. Our Germany Desk handles this entire flow in German.
The preventive setup: breaking the economics of the warning letter
Abmahnung is a game of probability: senders pick their targets by scanning stores with incomplete texts. If your storefront is complete, you drop off the target list. The preventive set means a German Impressum, up-to-date withdrawal information + form, PAngV-compliant price templates, a consent layer, an accessibility baseline and product information blocks (including GPSR). Auditing this set is the Germany module of the external storefront scan in our e-commerce focus area.
Conclusion
Germany is Europe’s largest e-commerce market and its most disciplined enforcement culture. A storefront built with the same discipline does more than protect against warning letters; it shows in your conversion rate — German consumers trust a store with a complete imprint. For the setup, see our Germany market compliance service; for the accessibility wave, see our EAA/BFSG record.
