Website Owner's Characteristics on the Internet
Since 2007, owners of websites have had to provide an imprint – aka a legal note. It is all about identifying the business using a website. The requirement of an imprint is laid down in §5 DDG.
What is an imprint? What function does such a legal notice have?
An imprint contains a summonable address of the website owner so that the owner can be easily identified. The idea behind this is to enable legal claims against him in court—if ever needed. The obligation comes from §5 DDG.
Can we be fined for violations of the imprint obligation?
In recent years, thousands of warnings have been issued for violations of the imprint obligation. However, the case law is not uniform. In some cases, the courts, such as the Düsseldorf Regional Court or the Higher Regional Court of Hamm, take the view that a missing or incomplete imprint constitutes a legal violation. Other courts differentiate here and assume that certain breaches of the imprint regulations are not subject to a fine, such as the Hanseatic OLG and the OLG Koblenz. Due to the inconsistent case law, every website operator should consider whether they need an imprint and what information must be included.
Other Hints
The imprint information should not appear in a pop-up window! Many users suppress this function, which means the information cannot be viewed and is, therefore, considered non-existent. This "non-existence" can be fined up to 50 k€.
Also, make sure that cookie consent banners do not obscure the "Imprint" menu item and that the imprint is visible in the website's mobile view.
If you use our incorporation service, please select this optional service. Once we have all the relevant information, we will automatically take care of this order.