District Court

Judgment to the affiliates process: the Supreme Court has decided – or also not affiliate programs to increase traffic on Internet sites. This page operators (merchants) cooperate with operators of other websites (affiliates), which set up links to the website of the merchant against Commission or some other form of compensation and, where appropriate, other promotional measures for him. In particular, the question whether merchants can be dragged to the liability for violations of the law committed by affiliates on their pages, arises from a legal perspective. So far, the question of liability for affiliate marketing in the case-law was controversial. The District Court of Hamburg decided, for example, that the merchant for the violations by affiliates in principle not liable.

Against the Cologne regional court came to the conclusion that a merchant even for violations of its affiliates on Web pages is liable, are not the subject of the partner program. Similarly, the courts in Cologne, Berlin and Munich decided. Now a case ended up before the BGH. A fight had two suppliers of bicycles and Bicycle accessories. It gave the company name of the applicant company in the search engine Google, you took a hit to an Internet site, a link to the website of the defendant company was. This site was operated by a company which had signed an affiliate agreement with the defendant company.

The brand name of the applicant was incorporated in the source code of the page, which resulted in the corresponding search results. The applicant asked in vain by the defendant to use the brand name of the applicant in the above manner or use by the affiliate partner. Resulted in a lawsuit by the instances, so that the Supreme Court on the question of liability had to take a stand. According to the BGH, the merchant can quite be liable for actions of its affiliates.

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