Lawyer helps with Warning notice from Deutsche Umwelthilfe

The Deutsche Umwelthilfe is registered as a non-profit organization. One of the ways the association receives its money is by regularly sending caution letters to car dealerships, estate agents and retailers of electrical appliances. This approach can certainly be criticized. Nevertheless, it is a legitimate approach that you should take seriously.

The warning letters from Deutsche Umwelthilfe are all structured in the same way. With the warning letter, you are requested to

• to submit a declaration of obligation and cease-and-desist declaration subject to penalty,
• to pay the warned amount of damages and the lawyer's fees

Under no circumstances should you do either! This is because a signed cease-and-desist declaration creates a contract that is valid for life and can no longer be amended. If you violate this declaration, you may be obliged to pay a high contractual penalty. You are also obliged to stop the infringement immediately and never to repeat it.

Die Deutsche Umwelthilfe is sending out warning letters for various breaches of competition law. A breach of competition exists if a trader does not comply with "the rules of fair commercial conduct". Deutsche Umwelthilfe particularly frequently issues warnings for missing or incorrect information on electrical appliances, real estate and cars.

• Energy consumption labels on electrical appliances - the labels were allegedly either concealed or not printed in the prescribed size
• Erroneous information on the energy quality of properties

Note that there are strict requirements for real estate advertising. For example, § 87 of the Building Energy Act stipulates that certain mandatory information must be included in a property advertisement placed in commercial media, including the type of energy certificate, the values of the energy requirement or energy consumption for the building stated therein and the main energy sources for heating the building stated in the energy certificate, as well as the year of construction stated in the energy certificate and the energy efficiency class stated in the certificate for residential buildings.

• Missing information on fuel consumption and CO2 emissions in advertisements pursuant to Section 5 Pkw-EnVKV

Warnings due to the EU regulation on consumer information on fuel consumption, CO2 emissions and electricity consumption of new passenger cars (Pkw-EnVKV) are particularly frequent. Make sure that you state at least the fuel consumption in the combined test cycle and the official specific CO2 emissions, stating the fuel type on which the calculation is based. The CO2 efficiency class must also be stated (also graphically) (not required for print advertising). It is important for print advertising to state the fuel consumption values described above. This information must be provided to both consumers and businesses. Attention: Deutsche Umwelthilfe itself issues warnings if the font size for notices is too small. It is therefore worth knowing the regulations in detail and complying with them.

Die Deutsche Umwelthilfe has sent out so many warning letters in recent years that a car dealer sued the association for abusive behavior. He was of the opinion that the many warnings were not enforcing the interests of the association's members, but were solely serving to finance Deutsche Umwelthilfe. However, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) expressly rejected this (case no. I ZR 149/18).
Die Deutsche Umwelthilfe is therefore still on the Federal Office of Justice's list of "qualified institutions" and may issue warnings for competition law infringements.

In the vast majority of cases, a declaration to cease and desist is directly attached to the warning letter from Deutsche Umwelthilfe. If you sign this declaration, you undertake to stop the infringement immediately and never to repeat it. If the warning is justified and you can say with certainty that you will never commit this infringement again, then it may make sense to sign the cease-and-desist declaration, as this puts an end to the matter. If you repeat the infringement, you may have to pay horrendous contractual penalties. You will then have to pay these, as the signed cease-and-desist declaration creates a lifelong contract that can no longer be amended. Contact us immediately after receiving the warning letter and we will check for you whether the warning letter is justified and, if so, whether the claim asserted in the cease-and-desist declaration can still be negotiated down and how you can take action against the warning letter if it is unjustified.

Once you have decided to submit the cease-and-desist declaration, you have another decision to make: To pay the warning costs or not? If you refuse to pay, Deutsche Umwelthilfe must assert its claim for reimbursement of its own warning costs in court by means of an action for payment.

Good for you: In this case, the lawyer's and court costs are "only" calculated from the warning costs, but not from the much higher amount in dispute for injunctive relief on which the warning is based. In this way, you can have the justification of the warning letter reviewed in court as part of the cost action to save costs.

Risk: If the court upholds the action for payment, you will not only have to pay the costs of the warning, but also the additional fees incurred by the court proceedings on both sides. However, if the action is dismissed, the other party will bear all costs.