Product extortion
A product extortion is an extortionate demand, which is usually in a business enterprise will be provided. In the event of non-compliance with the usually pecuniary claims made, sabotage of products is promised, which third parties bring into closer contact with the victim company.
The product extortion is a sub-case of extortion after § 253 criminal code in addition to a coercion a caused by them financial loss requires the coerced or a third party. German courts tend to use the qualification of predatory extortion in accordance with Section 255 of the Criminal Code, which gives greater leeway with regard to increased sentences with a deterrent effect.
Product blackmail regularly generates considerable media interest and often causes high losses in sales for the companies concerned , as unsettled consumers regularly avoid the branded articles and manufacturers concerned .
For example, so-called department store blackmail , in which the companies concerned are threatened with explosive attacks, fall under the generic term of product blackmail in the scientific presentation due to their similarity in nature .
At the end of the 1990s, there were more cases in Germany in which criminals stated that they manipulated food or other products in a harmful way if their demands for ransom money from producers or distributors were not met. The number of cases is difficult to understand because such cases are not statistically documented in a uniform manner. It is estimated that around 50 to 400 cases occur in Germany each year. Criminological differences exist between product extortion and other criminal product sabotage only in which goals (material or other kind) the perpetrator (s) want to achieve with their actions.
Product extortion is considered a copycat offense: Most perpetrators are inspired by press reports about product extortion that has already occurred. For example, there was an increase in the number of cases in immediate succession to the very media-effective case of the extortionist Dagobert , who repeatedly blackmailed KaDeWe and became famous for his spectacular ideas for handing over money. Some perpetrators have also been inspired to commit their acts by depictions in books or television thrillers such as the crime scene .
In the end, the blackmail process is only successful for the perpetrator in only three percent of the cases. This is mainly due to an extremely high failure rate in the so-called phase 3 , the phase of the money transfer. While the manipulation of products and z. B. which can be displayed in supermarkets out of anonymity , namely a spatially and temporally close contact with a money messenger is necessary for a money transfer, who is usually monitored by the police. In the majority of cases, real money is not used. Even the newer types of money transfer using electronic money transfer via international financial institutions have only been successful in individual cases so far due to their traceability .
The question of the extent to which the companies concerned are subject to liability risks under civil law, which, according to some court rulings, can be considerable, is constantly changing . Above all, claims from product liability and neglect of the duty of care with the consequent compensation to be paid come into question . In the legal and scientific discussion, the question of the extent to which the responsible persons in the companies concerned are to be made personally responsible under criminal law is also controversial . The persons involved are often not aware of the risks involved and are usually hardly manageable for the layperson.
literature
- Alexander Marcus Moseschus: Product extortion - A criminal phenomenon from a criminological, criminal and liability law and tactical perspective - , Göttingen 2004 ISBN 3-86537-186-8
