The toy “My Friend Cayla” uses Bluetooth to connect to a dedicated smartphone or tablet app, via which it is also connected to the Internet. Something you won’t realise at first is that the doll can listen in on conversations and transmit them over a wireless connection. read more
Following the European Court of Justice (ECJ) last summer, for the first time a German court – the Landgericht Hamburg – has now determined that simply linking to a website which contains a copyright infringement could in itself constitute a rights infringement. read more
WhatsApp is the world’s most popular messaging service, allowing users to share moments with friends, family and acquaintances 24 hours a day, seven days a week – in real time. But the announcement of recent weeks and the news from Hamburg’s data protection commissioner Johannes Caspar are detracting from all the chat fun – or are they? read more
A “publicly accessible area” within the meaning of Section 6b of Germany’s Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) is an area which anyone can enter. Any restrictions on access, such as entrance tickets or proof that a person has reached the age of majority, are of no relevance to this definition. read more
On 17 May 2016 Hamburg’s regional court, the Landgericht Hamburg (LG Hamburg), decided that Jan Böhmermann must in future refrain from uttering large parts of the abusive poem he recently performed. The court has now published the reasons for its decision. read more
Traders are required to provide an easily accessible link to the website of the online dispute resolution platform. This applies to all vendors who conclude B2C sales contracts and/or B2C service contracts by electronic means. read more
Generally speaking, payments made by customers and debtors are always welcome. Unfortunately though, if a GmbH (German limited liability company) is in crisis, payments made into an account on the debits side may mean more than simply good news for the GmbH’s director; they could also result in personal liability risks for him or her. This post examines these risks in more detail ... read more
Involving relatively little effort and reasonable cost, email is still the medium used by advertisers such as agencies, online retailers and service providers to keep a variety of existing customers up to date about their products and services. An advertiser can also maximise reach, for example by using public directories, crawling or purchasing email addresses ... read more
As part of its action plan for consumer protection in the financial market, in July 2014 the German government presented draft legislation aimed at protecting small investors, to be voted on after the summer break. It isn’t just since the insolvency of Prokon that lawmakers have recognised a need to act. This is why BaFin, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, will in future also monitor the ‘grey’ capital market and, for example, warn investors of risky financial products ... read more
