- Specialist lawyer for intellectual property rights
- Advice at the highest level
- Specialized in warning letters in competition law
Lawyer helps with your IDO warning
Lawyer Peter Weiler
Your contact person
Lawyer Peter Weiler Specialist lawyer for intellectual property rights
Experienced in warnings from the IDO association
- Specialized attorney for intellectual property rights
- Years of experience in the defense against warnings from the IDO Association
- Free initial consultation for warning letters from the IDO
- Available for you nationwide
How we work with you
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Submit warning
Submit your warning via our contact form. Please feel free to describe the background to your case. We will usually get back to you on the day of the request.
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Free advice
We take a look at the warning letter. One of our lawyers specializing in cease-and-desist letters will then contact you and discuss the prospects of success of your case with you. The consultation is free of charge.
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Our offer
Immediately after the initial consultation, you will receive our order documents, with which we will once again confirm in writing what we have discussed. You can then consider at your leisure whether you want to continue with us.
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We get started
We will start work and take the necessary steps to successfully defend you against the warning letter. We will keep you transparently informed at all times about the progress of the matter up to the final deletion.
What is the IDO Association?
The IDO Association is the interest group for legal and financial consulting for German online companies. The association is based in Berlin and, according to its own information, represents the interests of over 2,000 member companies in the e-commerce sector and other industries that operate online. The IDO Association offers its members a variety of services, including legal advice and support in complying with legal provisions and regulations in online retail. It pursues the goal of promoting legally compliant and successful online retail in Germany.
The association has been criticized for years due to its aggressive approach towards small and medium-sized online retailers for alleged violations of competition law.
How does an IDO warning letter work?
An IDO warning letter is a request sent by the IDO Association to a company or person that has allegedly violated competition law.
In competition law, a warning letter aims to remedy the infringement of competition law regulations and to give the infringer the opportunity to quickly rectify the unlawful situation. Typical infringements can be, for example, misleading consumers, infringing trademark rights or inadmissible advertising measures.
An IDO warning letter in competition law usually contains the following elements:
- a detailed description of the infringement of competition law,
- a request to remedy the infringement immediately and to submit a cease-and-desist declaration,
- a deadline for submitting the cease-and-desist declaration,
- a request to pay an appropriate contractual penalty in the event of a repeat infringement and
- a threat of legal action in the event of non-compliance with the warning notice
A warning letter in competition law is often associated with a demand for payment of legal fees. The amount of the legal fees usually depends on the amount in dispute and can be considerable depending on the individual case.
An IDO warning letter serves as a precursor to further legal action such as an injunction or a lawsuit. An IDO warning letter is therefore to be taken seriously. Respond quickly and appropriately to avoid further legal action. Take advantage of our free Muelle.legal initial consultation here.
What is the IDO Association warning about?
The warnings sent out by the IDO are mainly based on competitive infringements. The lack of or incorrect implementation in the area of e-commerce is a particularly frequent subject of warnings. This mainly concerns:
- Basic price information
- legal texts such as revocation instructions and data protection declarations
- Missing or unclickable links to the ODR platform
- Advertising with guarantees
- Delivery times
Affected above all are the sale of:
Are the IDO warnings to be taken seriously?
The warnings issued by the Interessenverband für das Rechts- und Finanzconsulting deutscher Online-Unternehmen e.V. (IDO) should always be taken seriously. The IDO is a recognized consumer protection association and has the right to issue warnings for breaches of competition law in the area of online trade.
However, criticism of the IDO's warnings has repeatedly been voiced in the past, in particular due to the high number of warnings and the fact that the association has financed itself in a very questionable manner in some cases. In the past, warnings were sometimes issued to an extent that was no longer proportionate and even minor infringements were heavily sanctioned.
Nevertheless, it is generally advisable not to ignore warnings from the IDO and to seek legal advice immediately in order to avoid possible legal consequences. Please use our initial consultation form. The initial consultation is always free of charge.
Can I ignore an IDO Association warning?
It is not recommended to ignore an IDO warning letter. The IDO is a recognized consumer protection association and has the right to issue warnings for infringements of competition law in the area of online trade.
If you have received a warning letter from the IDO, you should check it carefully and respond immediately. If you ignore the warning, this could have serious consequences, such as a legal dispute with considerable costs.
Instead, you should check the warning letter carefully. It is advisable to consult a specialized lawyer to discuss your options and ensure that you respond appropriately to the warning letter.
Can the IDO interest group send me a warning?
The right to issue warnings is not only available to competitors. Under certain conditions, business associations may also issue warnings. Legitimization arises, for example, from the number of members. Another prerequisite is that a legally capable association promotes commercial or independent professional interests. Whether this is the case with the IDO Association is regularly a matter for the courts. However, you should always take a warning seriously, as this is always a question of the individual case.
Who is affected by the IDO's warnings?
Online retailers on platforms such as Amazon, eBay or DaWanda should pay particular attention. According to the Händlerbund, warnings from associations such as the IDO accounted for a good 50 percent of all warnings issued in June 2020. The IDO association is considered the most active warning association, which now focuses on eBay and Amazon retailers. This means that small businesses and one-man companies are particularly at risk. They often find it difficult to comply with all legal regulations due to a lack of legal support within the company. We can help you with this quickly, easily and cost-effectively.
What are the dangers of an IDO warning?
The danger of a warning letter is that the matter is not settled once you have signed and paid the lump sum. Rather, before you sign a cease-and-desist declaration, you must first adapt your website and any affected offers, auctions, etc. in accordance with the law. legally adapt them. This means, for example, that you must delete terminated eBay auctions with legal violations before submitting the cease-and-desist declaration. You are also obliged to clear the caches of search engine operators, such as Google, or at least work towards a clean-up.
You should therefore not simply sign the attached declaration to cease and desist. If you do not completely eliminate the infringements, you will be in breach of the signed cease-and-desist declaration. If the IDO Association establishes such a breach, it will demand that you pay a high contractual penalty of up to EUR 4,000.
What does the IDO Association demand?
Most warning letters from the IDO association are structured as follows:
First, the association introduces itself, then justifies its legitimacy to issue a notice of infringement, demand warning costs and impose a contractual penalty.
You should not agree to any of the demands without first carrying out a legal check. However, ignoring the warning is not a solution. You must expect that the association will enforce the claims asserted in the warning letter in court if you do not respond. You should therefore take advantage of our free initial consultation with Mueller.legal.
Sign and don't pay?
Signing the cease-and-desist declaration sent by the IDO association but not settling any of the claims is definitely not expedient. This is because the interest group for the legal and financial consulting of German online companies will then sue for the claims. This makes things unnecessarily expensive. In addition, you may face severe contractual penalties if you sign the cease-and-desist declaration without consulting and reviewing it and then violate it because you have not or not completely remedied the infringement of competition before you have submitted the cease-and-desist declaration. We therefore strongly advise against this approach. In any case, observe the deadlines set in the warning letter. If you let them pass unused, the matter will usually go to court, which makes the process unnecessarily expensive and lengthy.
Sign and pay?
It is not always in your interest to simply sign the cease-and-desist declaration sent by the IDO Association and pay the amounts demanded in the warning letter. On the one hand, you often have to pay nothing or less. On the other hand, you may face high contractual penalties if you sign the cease-and-desist declaration without consulting and reviewing it and then violate it. This is particularly the case if you have not remedied the infringement of competition at all or not completely remedied it before you have submitted the cease-and-desist declaration. Below you will find further important information on the IDO Association and judgments handed down against the IDO. You can also use our free initial assessment to find out more and receive a plan tailored to your situation to counter the IDO's warning letter.
Is the IDO authorized to issue warnings under competition law?
In the past, the IDO - Interessenverband für das Rechts- und Finanzconsulting deutscher Online-Unternehmen e.V. has sent out a large number of warning letters and often claimed contractual penalties. However, whether the IDO even fulfills the actual requirements to be allowed to issue warnings has been controversial for some time.
In recent years, the IDO has been repeatedly denied legitimacy to act by several judgments, such as in 2019 by the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt
(Ref. 6 U 58/18). After the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf last denied the question of active legitimacy in its ruling of 23 June 2022, the Federal Court of Justice (case no. I ZR 111/22) had to deal with the issue. On 26.01.2023, the court overturned the ruling of the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court and affirmed the IDO's legitimacy to take action. However, whether the IDO may be acting in abuse of rights has not been conclusively clarified by the BGH ruling.
Does the IDO Association have an active legitimation for my area of activity?
If you sell jewelry on platforms such as eBay or Amazon and have received a warning from the IDO, then this warning is most likely unlawful. This was decided by the Higher Regional Court of Koblenz in an IDO Association ruling dated 03.02.2020 (Ref.: 9 W 356/19). The IDO was only able to provide evidence of 20 members from the jewelry sector who all sell their goods online and predominantly on eBay. This was not enough for the court in this case. We will check for you how many members the IDO has in your area of activity and, if necessary, assert the IDO's lack of active legitimacy.
What has changed as a result of the law against warning letter abuse?
On September 10, 2020, the German Bundestag passed a draft law to strengthen fair competition. The law aims to prevent the abuse of warnings and strengthen the position of traders. Among other things, this is to be achieved through the introduction of standard examples for abusive warnings. This will make it easier for recipients of abusive warnings to present their claims in future. The mass mailing of warnings and obviously excessive contractual penalties are to be included in this. It is therefore all the more important to check whether the warning letter is abusive before signing a cease-and-desist declaration.
