Check24

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CHECK24 GmbH

logo
legal form Company with limited liability
founding 1999
Seat Munich , GermanyGermanyGermany 
management Henrich Blase
Eckhard Juls
Georg Heusgen
Kostas Pyliouras
Christoph Röttele
(Managing Director / Spokesman for the Management)
Number of employees approx. 1000 (group-wide)
sales 500 million euros (group-wide) (2015/16)
Branch Financial services
Website www.check24.de

The Check24 GmbH (proper spelling CHECK24 ) is a 1999 founded company group with headquarters in Munich , since 2008, a price comparison portal for the areas of insurance , finance , energy , telecommunications , travel operates as well as shopping and both as a broker and as an insurance agent operates.

history

Check24 headquarters in Munich

Henrich Blase and Eckhard Juls founded einsurance Agency AG with 20 employees in August 1999 and went online with their comparison portal for motor vehicle insurance in October of the same year . In October 2008, Check24 went online as a merger of the insurance comparison portal einsurance.de, the finance and credit comparison portal moneyworld.de and the electricity and gas comparison portal tarifvergleich.de.
After that, more than 50 other GmbHs were registered with the Munich Commercial Register with 'Check 24' in their title alone, and more with other registration courts. All of these are wholly owned subsidiaries of the Check24 GmbH holding company , formerly Check24 Comparison Portal GmbH .

In 2004 the group's turnover was two million euros and in the 2011/12 financial year it was 115 million euros. In 2010 Check24 was the market leader in comparing car insurance. In 2010 the company brokered 450,000, in 2013 750,000 and in 2014 around 908,000 and in 2015 1.05 million motor vehicle insurance contracts per year. Nevertheless, so far only 13.5 percent of new business in property insurance, e.g. B. Car insurance processed through direct sales including comparison portals.

In 2011, the company's competition with Transparo was discussed in the press. Here it should have come to a legal exchange of blows. The largest German car insurer, HUK-Coburg , was listed on its own comparison portal Transparo from 2011 to 2014, but not on Check24.

In addition to the headquarters in Munich, the company also has locations in Hamburg, Dresden, Leipzig, Cologne, Augsburg Freiburg, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Münster, Essen, Düsseldorf, Hanover, Dortmund, Halle, Magdeburg, Mainz and Chemnitz.

Companies

The Check24 GmbH belongs to 90 percent to management and to 10 percent a US - investor . The company is financed through commissions from the brokered transactions. Use is free of charge for the end consumer. According to industry estimates, Check24 mediates products (including insurance, travel, electricity contracts) worth around 20 billion euros per year. The comparison portal generated sales of almost EUR 500 million in the 2015/16 financial year.

Check24 invested 60 million euros in start-up companies through its wholly owned subsidiary Check24 Ventures GmbH . Depending on their needs, they can receive up to ten million euros in capital. The focus of venture capital is on early-stage and growth investments.

advertising

In 2015, Check24's budget for television advertising was EUR 118 million. The advertising budget was 135 million euros. From January to December 2016, Check24 spent around 172 million euros on advertising, according to Horizont . According to a representative survey by YouGov Brand Monitor, the commercials contribute significantly to awareness of the company: 30 percent of those surveyed had recently seen a Check24 commercial. In an unsupported survey, 68 percent said they knew Check24. It is around 93 percent of online users. In 2016, Check24 (43 percent) replaced Verivox (31 percent) as the preferred comparison site in the area of ​​electricity and gas comparison.

Check24 has been the main sponsor of the ARD Sportschau since the 2016/2017 season of the Bundesliga . In addition, the comparison portal has been the title sponsor of the Sport1 talk show " Doppelpass " since the 2017/18 Bundesliga season and has sponsored the 2018 World Cup qualifying games for the German national soccer team on RTL and as a program sponsor of the ARD and ZDF broadcasts for the 2018 World Cup . The twelfth season of I'm a Star - Get Me Out of Here! on RTL accompanied Check24 as a program, trailer, and digital sponsor.

Since September 2016 , commercials based on the comedy series A Terrible Nice Family have been running on television and YouTube under the title “Two incomparable families”.

social commitment

Check24 together with its customers and employees donated more than € 650,000 for social organizations in 2017 and 2018, according to its own information.

Test reports

Review output date Overall grade placement
Stiftung Warentest
Booking portals for package tours Test 01/2017 December 30, 2016 2.8 (satisfactory) 5th place out of 8 travel agency portals
Flight booking portals Test 08/2016 July 27, 2016 2.8 (satisfactory) First place out of 10 portals with price comparison, but recommendation: book directly with the airline
Rental car booking portals Test 04/2016 April 27, 2016 1.4 (very good) 1st place out of 16 tested
Gas tariff calculator Test 10/2014 September 25, 2014 2.9 (satisfactory) 1st place out of 5 tested
Electricity tariff calculator Test 03/2013 February 21, 2013 3.0 (satisfactory) 2nd place out of 7 comparison portals with free switching options
Stiftung Warentest - financial test
Conditions for installment loans 09/2018 September 2018 1st place out of 16 tested
Focus Money
Rental car portals 17/2016 April 2016 1st place out of 8 tested
Comparison portal financial products 29/2014 July 2014 1st place out of 6 tested
Vehicle comparison portals 41/2013 October 2013 1st place out of 6 tested

criticism

The Federal Association of German Insurance Merchants (BVK) sued the comparison portal Check24 and accused the portal of unfair competition . The BVK criticized u. a. lack of individual questioning and advice from the comparison portal. The Regional Court of Munich I partially followed the BVK's reasoning in its judgment of July 13, 2016, so in future the company must clearly inform its customers when brokering insurance contracts that it acts as an insurance broker and receives commissions. Individual specific violations of the company's advisory obligations were also criticized. In contrast, the court rejected more general allegations of alleged violations of the advisory obligations as being too vague. In the appeal proceedings on April 6, 2017, the Munich Higher Regional Court confirmed the Regional Court's opinion. The company has meanwhile revised its initial information for customers so that its status as a broker is easier to recognize, and it has also supplemented the input masks in order to fully comply with its advisory and questioning obligations.

In February 2016, the consumer advice centers published a study by the Marktwächter Digitale Welt project . In it, the consumer advocates criticized, among other things, that customers would not always find the cheapest price on comparison portals such as Check24. Wirtschaftswoche and Die Zeit criticized the study because consumer advocates fell for enticement offers from providers and positive aspects of comparison portals were not mentioned.

In October 2018, the Association of Insured Persons criticized the fact that comparison portals such as Check24 suggested "that a comprehensive and neutral comparison of all insurance offers and tariffs takes place with use". According to the BDV, this is not the case, however, since not all providers are taken into account, but only those with whom Check24 has made a commission agreement.

Web links

Commons : Check24  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Consolidated financial statements published in the Federal Gazette
  2. ↑ Heinz Roger Dohms: Medium- sized companies on speed . Manager Magazin , November 2016; Retrieved April 11, 2017.
  3. ↑ Imprint CHECK24 Comparison Portal GmbH - Registration number according to § 34d GewO: D-P105-1W8WS-19. In: check24.de. Retrieved March 8, 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b Register of intermediaries: research. In: vermittlerregister.info. German Chamber of Commerce and Industry , accessed on March 8, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Imprint CHECK24 Comparison Portal GmbH - Registration number according to § 34d GewO: D-7XZX-1CG4B-53. In: check24.de. Retrieved March 8, 2017 .
  6. ↑ AG München, HRB 134,516th
  7. ↑ Erwin Lammenett : Practical Knowledge of Online Marketing . 6th edition. Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden 2017, ISBN 978-3-658-15493-6 , p. 267.
  8. ↑ online-handelsregister.de: Check24 , accessed on June 23, 2019.
  9. ↑ Anja Timmermann: Internet comparison portal: Die Checker from Munich. In: Munich evening newspaper . August 31, 2012, accessed August 27, 2019 .
  10. ↑ a b http://www.ftd.de/unternehmen/handel-dienstleister/:expansionskurs-check24-draengelt-in-den-bankvertrieb/70043174 ( Memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  11. ↑ Check24 warns of Google dominance . ( Memento from December 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Financial Times Deutschland, December 1, 2010.
  12. ↑ Internet comparison portals: Check24 is launching a counterattack ( Memento from October 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ The secret power of comparison portals . In: Wirtschaftswoche , June 17, 2014, accessed on September 2, 2015.
  14. ^ Herbert Fromme: Check 24: "The Internet wins". In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . June 16, 2016, accessed June 27, 2016 .
  15. ↑ Patricia Döhle: A tough one . Ed .: Antje Söhlke. tape 04/2017 . brand eins Verlag, Hamburg, p. 22-29 .
  16. Jump up fever keeps lawyers busy ( memento of November 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). In: Financial Times Deutschland , November 22, 2011.
  17. ↑ Thomas Magenheim: Internet: Comparison portals under criticism. October 21, 2011, accessed August 27, 2019 .
  18. ↑ Comparison portal does not want to publish any commissions . In: handelsblatt.com , May 2, 2016; Retrieved July 11, 2016
  19. ↑ a b Heinz-Roger Dohms: Check24 against the financial sector - again . In: Andreas Petzold (Ed.): Capital . No. 06/2017 . Gruner + Jahr GmbH & Co. KG, Hamburg May 18, 2017, p. 100 .
  20. ↑ Matthias Kamp: Check24 founds venture capital fund. In: Wirtschaftswoche. September 30, 2016. Retrieved October 4, 2016 .
  21. ↑ E-commerce companies with the highest investments in 2016. In: Statista. Retrieved August 2, 2016 . Svetlana Kerschner: Withdrawal from advertising budget after Verivox purchase: Check24 sees Pro Sieben as competition. In: dasinvestment.com. October 15, 2015, accessed August 2, 2016 .
  22. ↑ Horizont Magazin - Retail takes off . German specialist publishers, November 2016, p. 22 .
  23. ↑ Michael Reidel: The car manufacturers park in second place . In: horizon . Deutscher Fachverlag GmbH, January 26, 2017, p. 22 .
  24. ↑ Holger Geißler: BrandIndex: Check24, Verivox & Co: The comparison portals in comparison. In: Wirtschaftswoche. July 25, 2016, accessed August 2, 2016 . Holger Geißler: Check24, Verivox & Co: The comparison portals in comparison. In: YouGov. July 25, 2016, accessed August 2, 2016 .
  25. ↑ Jürgen Flauger: Comparison portals: On the Internet for bargain hunting. December 1, 2016, accessed December 2, 2016 .
  26. ↑ Philipp Schneider: Comparison portals: The simple conclusion is more important than the neutral presentation of comparisons. In: YouGov: What the world thinks. August 31, 2016, accessed August 31, 2016 .
  27. ↑ Mirko Wenig: Check24 becomes the main sponsor of the ARD sports show. In: versicherungsbote.de. July 22, 2016. Retrieved August 17, 2016 . Alexander Krei: Perform invests in Japan, Check 24 relies on football. In: DWDL.de . July 25, 2016. Retrieved August 17, 2016 . Krombacher and Check 24 will remain sponsors of the sports show. August 9, 2017. Retrieved August 10, 2017 .
  28. ↑ Timo Niemeier: The Check24 family goes to the World Cup, P&G back on Youtube. In: DWDL.de. April 24, 2018. Retrieved August 21, 2018 . Petra Schwegler: Check 24 becomes a football sponsor on TV. In: wuv.de. July 22, 2016. Retrieved August 10, 2017 . CHECK24, Germany's largest comparison portal, is the title sponsor of the "Doppelpass" on SPORT1, the most famous football talk on German television. In: Sport1Media. August 10, 2017. Retrieved August 10, 2017 .
  29. ↑ Petra Schwegler: IP books special forms of advertising - These advertisers present the RTL jungle camp. In: Advertise & Sell . January 16, 2018, accessed January 18, 2018 .
  30. ↑ Two Incomparable Families
  31. ↑ These are the actors of the Kruger and Bergmann families. In: Focus Online . November 7, 2017, accessed July 25, 2020 .
  32. ↑ Santiago Campillo-Lundbeck: Check24 starts the next brand offensive with sitcommercial. In: horizon . August 26, 2016, accessed July 25, 2020 .
  33. ↑ CHECK24 donates over 650,000 euros in 2017 with the help of customers and employees. December 5, 2017, accessed August 1, 2019 . CHECK24 helps: 2018 over 650,000 euros for disadvantaged children and young people. December 5, 2018, accessed August 1, 2019 .
  34. ↑ Book a trip - It works well on these portals. Stiftung Warentest, December 30, 2016, accessed on August 25, 2019 .
  35. ↑ Flight booking portals - book better with the airline. Stiftung Warentest, July 27, 2016, accessed on August 10, 2016 .
  36. ↑ Rental cars - 2 out of 16 booking portals are very good. Stiftung Warentest, April 27, 2016, accessed on August 10, 2016 .
  37. ↑ Gas tariff calculator put to the test - How to switch correctly and save money. Stiftung Warentest, September 25, 2015, accessed on August 10, 2016 .
  38. ↑ Electricity tariff calculator: No comparison portal is good. Stiftung Warentest, February 21, 2013, accessed on August 12, 2016 .
  39. ↑ Thomas Schickling: On the right route. FOCUS Online, April 20, 2016, accessed on August 16, 2016 .
  40. ↑ Thomas Schickling: The best interest for me. FOCUS Online, July 9, 2014, accessed on August 16, 2016 .
  41. ↑ Thomas Schickling: Click on the price brake. FOCUS Online, October 2, 2013, accessed on August 16, 2016 .
  42. ↑ Anne Kunz: The desperate battle of the brokers against Check24. In: Welt Online . February 24, 2016, accessed June 30, 2016 . Consumers: Judges examine the obligation to advise when buying online . In: Zeit Online ; accessed June 30, 2016
  43. ↑ The court obliges Check24 to be more transparent. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung (online). July 13, 2016, accessed July 13, 2016 .
  44. ↑ Jürgen Evers: Obligation to advise applies to online brokers. In: Insurance Industry. Verlag Versicherungswirtschaft GmbH, September 2016, accessed on June 30, 2020 .
  45. ↑ Stefanie Ruhwinkel: Justice in Bavaria - Regional Court Munich I - PM - Jurisprudence of the Regional Court Munich I in civil matters. Bavarian State Ministry of Justice, July 13, 2016, accessed on July 14, 2016 .
  46. ↑ Check24 must inform insurance customers better. In: Welt Online. May 6, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2017 .
  47. ↑ Check24: Portal indicates broker status more clearly. Stiftung Warentest, September 22, 2017, accessed on August 26, 2019 .
  48. ↑ Marktwächter Digitale Welt: Booking and comparison portals , February 25, 2016, accessed on August 26, 2019.
  49. ↑ Niklas Hoyer: Study of the consumer advice centers: comparison portals hardly help users. In: Wirtschaftswoche. Retrieved June 30, 2016 .
  50. ↑ Matthias Kamp: Check24 in focus: “The associations must meet their quality standards.” In: Wirtschaftswoche. Retrieved July 1, 2016 . Heinz-Roger Dohms: Consumer Advice Center: Who is protecting whom here? In: Zeit Online. March 31, 2016, accessed August 27, 2019 .
  51. ↑ Herbert Fromme, Anne-Christin Gröger: What you should know about Check 24. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. Retrieved November 15, 2019 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 8 '38.4 "  N , 11 ° 32' 8.2"  E