Statement “reopening” requires actual closure

Misleading statements are a regular candidate when it is asked whether there has been a breach of the UWG. And as with so many questions, you can often disagree. However, what is relevant for traders is often what higher regional courts decide.

A recent decision comes from the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf and deals with the question of whether one can advertise one’s own business (and in the end it does not matter whether it is online shop or shop) with the term “reopening”.

The General Court considers such advertising to be admissible only if the transaction was actually closed beforehand.

Irrespective of this, the defendant’s advertising is misleading because, by expressly referring to a reopening, in which the word element ‘new’ is also highlighted in a sense of view, it gives the impression that, in any event, the defendant’s business is being pursued after a new opening. temporary closure for the purpose of carrying out reconstruction work and the redevelopment of many departments.

In doing so, the General Court specifies:

The concept of ‘opening’ already presupposes conceptually that the transaction was previously closed, at least temporarily, for a certain period of time.

The term “new” should be treated very carefully in advertising as a whole. The term provides countless hits in the relevant judgment databases, which only to this specific case, but also to the question of when a product is “new”.

Author: Marian Härtel

Marian Härtel ist Rechtsanwalt und Fachanwalt für IT-Recht mit einer über 25-jährigen Erfahrung als Unternehmer und Berater in den Bereichen Games, E-Sport, Blockchain, SaaS und Künstliche Intelligenz. Seine Beratungsschwerpunkte umfassen neben dem IT-Recht insbesondere das Urheberrecht, Medienrecht sowie Wettbewerbsrecht. Er betreut schwerpunktmäßig Start-ups, Agenturen und Influencer, die er in strategischen Fragen, komplexen Vertragsangelegenheiten sowie bei Investitionsprojekten begleitet. Dabei zeichnet sich seine Beratung durch einen interdisziplinären Ansatz aus, der juristische Expertise und langjährige unternehmerische Erfahrung miteinander verbindet. Ziel seiner Tätigkeit ist stets, Mandanten praxisorientierte Lösungen anzubieten und rechtlich fundierte Unterstützung bei der Umsetzung innovativer Geschäftsmodelle zu gewährleisten.