LHR obtains court ban: Trade information centre (GWE) may no longer write to clients
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Most companies are aware of the problems surrounding GWE-Wirtschaftsinformations GmbH. GWE Wirtschaftsinformations GmbH, better known as ‘Gewerbeauskunft-Zentrale’, sends letters to companies asking them to complete or correct the data provided and to sign a confirmation.
Trade information centre ≠ Trade register
The letter under the header ‘Gewerbeauskunft-Zentrale’ gives the impression that it was sent by a body acting in the public interest. The term ‘trade information centre’ is misperceived by the average attentive reader. They associate the term ‘business information centre’ with ‘business register’ and often fall for an expensive fee-based offer due to this misconception.
Sending out data entry forms is more than just a nuisance
This was also the case for our client. In addition to a company headquarters, our client operates numerous branches throughout Germany. The trade information centre not only wrote to the head office but also to the individual branches. And it was precisely in the branches that the errors occurred. The employees responsible did not recognise the true nature of the ‘business information centre’, filled in the form and were promptly caught in the trap. After the trade information centre demanded money in several cases, the unsettled branch employees turned to the company headquarters and asked for advice.
In order to put a permanent end to the whole scandal, the business information centre in the form of GWE-Wirtschaftsinformations GmbH was requested without further ado to refrain from sending the ‘registration forms’ to our clients. The business information centre was not prepared to do this out of court, so the matter was brought before the Düsseldorf Regional Court. We were proved right in our opinion that even the sending of the letters was unauthorised and should be prohibited.
Düsseldorf District Court puts a stop to the business information centre
The Düsseldorf Regional Court (16 O 176/12) ruled in the proceedings against GWE-Wirtschaftsinformations GmbH on 20 September 2012 that the latter must
on pain of a fine of up to € 250,000.00 to be imposed for each case of non-compliance, or imprisonment for up to 6 months, to refrain from writing to the plaintiff at its headquarters and/or its branches or subsidiaries on a commercial basis in order to request and/or compare information for the purpose of use in a register database, to have it confirmed, to submit offers in this regard and/or to have the listed actions carried out individually and/or in combination by third parties, unless the plaintiff has given its consent.
The judgement is legally binding. We are pleased to have freed our clients from a real nuisance in this case. (ro)
Addendum:
On 6 June 2013, we received a call from a sprightly 82-year-old gentleman who reported that he had already received two letters from the business information centre. He is angry that the letters are not only addressed to entrepreneurs but apparently also to older people who are simply overwhelmed by the ‘registration forms’. We would like to thank him for pointing this out and can well understand his anger.
(Bild: © WoGi – Fotolia.com)
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