Competition Law (UWG)
Has your company received a warning notice or lawsuit, or is your company itself exposed to competition infringements by a competitor?
We have 20 years of experience in competition law (UWG) and efficiently support you in enforcing or defending against competition law claims.
Therefore, do not hesitate for a moment and arrange a free initial consultation with our lawyers directly.
Competition Infringements
The range of possible competition infringements is enormous. The listed examples are actually just headings, under which extensive lists of anti-competitive actions exist:
- Unfair Business Practices
- Aggressive Business Practices
- Misleading Business Practices
- Impeding Sales
- Operational Disruptions
- Abuse of Economic Power
- Competition by the Public Sector
- Disparagement of a Company
- Direct Adoption of Performance
- Avoidable Deception of Origin
- Exploitation of Reputation
- Comparative Advertising
- Breach of Law
- Breach of Contract
- Misuse of Geographical Indications
- Misuse of Company Identifiers
- Bribery of Employees or Agents
- Violation of Trade Secrets or Business Secrets
Peter HarlanderHarlander & Partner Rechtsanwälte „Verletzungen des Wettbewerbsrechts verschaffen dem Rechtsverletzer unfaire Vorteile am Markt und sind folglich illegal.“
Legal Consequences
The legal consequences of a violation of competition law (UWG) are severe:
- Removal
- Cessation
- Damages
- Publication of Judgment
In practice, the claims for removal and publication of judgment are particularly painful.
Removal is often only possible through the recall of products that violate competition law or through the cessation of previously sales-relevant marketing measures. The publication of the judgment is usually carried out in a clearly visible manner on the website of the infringer or in the form of costly, large-format newspaper advertisements.
Multiple competition infringements are therefore often a reason for insolvency.
Attorneys for Competition Law
As attorneys for competition law, we offer a comprehensive portfolio:
Competition Law Review
The comprehensive competition law review of one’s own company is of central importance for minimizing one’s own corporate risk, but also from the perspective of the managing director in the sense of minimizing one’s own managing director liability.
The task is even greater than it seems at first glance. Competition infringements can arise not only from the violation of competition law (UWG) itself, but also from non-compliance with other laws or technical standards.
As part of the competition law review, our lawyers therefore create a project plan for our clients, which we then work through together. If the involvement of external specialists is required, e.g. for the testing of CE conformity of electrical appliances or the correct labeling of food, we support our clients in coordinating all parties involved.
Monitoring of Competitors
A violation of competition law often brings enormous advantages in customer acquisition or production costs. Therefore, fewer and fewer entrepreneurs are willing to tolerate the often truly blatant legal violations of their competitors.
For these cases, our law firm has, for example, tools for monitoring changes on websites as well as employees to carry out mystery shopping measures in order to be able to react immediately to anti-competitive business practices.
Enforcement or Defense against Warnings and Lawsuits
Anyone who gets involved in competition law disputes without the support of a specialized (!) lawyer risks the entire company in the worst case.
Competition law proceedings differ in many respects from conventional civil proceedings. Strategy actually plays a major role here. The smallest mistakes can lead to immediate loss of the case, a counterattack by the opponent, or other irreparable consequences.
Peter HarlanderHarlander & Partner Rechtsanwälte „In unserer Rechtsanwaltskanzlei finden Sie die notwendige Expertise, um Ihre Mitbewerber erfolgreich in Schach zu halten.“
