Breaking the law

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In German fair trading law , a breach of law is the violation of a legal regulation that regulates market behavior by an entrepreneur.

history

The forerunner of today's regulation was the case group developed by the Reichsgericht of the “violation of competition law by breaking the law”. Under the old general clause of § 1 UWG old version, violations of the law could be punished as immoral. Although the jurisprudence did not in principle already deduce the immorality from the mere violation of the law, an unfairness was quickly affirmed. The RG (and later the BGH) differentiated between value-neutral and value-related standards. Value-related norms were those that express a basic moral view. These morally founded norms were, for example, criminal law regulations or those for the protection of young people. A norm, on the other hand, was merely value-neutral if it had only been issued for reasons of regulatory expediency, but did not represent an expression of a moral commandment and it also did not serve any particularly important common good. Here, there had to be a deliberate and deliberate override of the law in order to be immoral.

Legal situation today

Today the breach of law is codified in § 4 No. 11 UWG. It should be noted that the UGP-RL (PDF) does not contain any offenses corresponding to a breach of law. In the B2B relationship is problematic in B2C are -Fällen needs but noted that the Directive is a full harmonization.

Statutory regulation within the meaning of Section 4 No. 11 UWG is any legal norm that is valid in Germany. These standards must also regulate " market behavior, also in the interests of market participants ". It must therefore at least also serve to protect market participants. This is the case, for example, with youth protection regulations. An infringement presupposes that the facts of the relevant standard are completely fulfilled.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See RGZ 115, 319 and RGZ 166, 315.
  2. ↑ Emmerich, Unfair Competition. 9 ed. § 20 marginal no. 2.
  3. ↑ Köhler / Bornkamm, UWG. 30 ed. § 4 marginal no. 11.6a.
  4. ^ BGH, judgment of July 21, 2005 - I ZR 170/02 - GRUR 2005, 960, 961 - Friedhofsruhe.
  5. ^ BGH, judgment of July 12, 2007 - I ZR 18/04 - GRUR 2007, 890 - Media harmful to minors on eBay.
  6. ↑ BGH, judgment of November 8, 2007 - I ZR 60/05 - GRUR 2008, 530 marginal note 11 - discount on deductibles.