Domain registrar is only liable

In a recent judgment, the District Court of Münster confirmed that a company that manages the registration of a domain for a third party is only liable to a limited extent for possible infringements of the third party.

This would also have only limited testing obligations; There would be obligations to act only if the infringement was manifest and could thus be ascertained with even without a far-reaching factual and legal examination. This is consistent with the previous case law. In addition, a different view would unduly claim the requirements for the registrar’s legal knowledge.

The District Court of Münster therefore refused to issue an injunction.

Notwithstanding this, the respondent could not, in any event, find confirmation of the applicant’s statement of facts in the opinion of the domain owner. […] Moreover, if the facts of the case had been clarified, the defendant would not have been able to affirm or deny the facts of an unlawful interference with the established and exercised commercial enterprise or the facts of an unlawful threat to credit without a more in-depth legal examination.

A registrar is therefore not obliged to weigh up conflicting and/or unclear statements or even to check for the veracity.