The imprint is prescribed by German law for most websites. It must not only be accessible at any time and easily reachable, but also contain all mandatory information.
General Obligations
In general, it must be recognizable in the imprint who is responsible for a website. This also includes stating the company name if it's not a partnership with the owner's name. The business address belongs just as much to the imprint, i.e., street, zip code and town as well as country, if it's not a uniquely German domain suffix. In addition, the email address of the person responsible must be mentioned as a contact option. A contact form is not sufficient (Berlin Chamber Court, judgment of 07.05.2013, case no.: 5 U 32/12). The phone number is not necessarily required but should be stated for security reasons, at least if you haven't had any problems with telephone spam yet or if you can't clearly assess the legal situation, which might be the case with online shops. Furthermore, the person responsible for the editorial content should be mentioned. This includes stating a personal name and address. For the address, reference can be made to the company's address.
Dependent legal obligations based on corporate form
Depending on the type of society, specific obligations must be made. For example, if it is a person society, the managing director does not have to be named like in a Ltd., but as a member (GbR) or owner (freelancer), etc.
Limited Liability Company (LLC)
For a Ltd., in addition to address information, the following information must be entered:
- Limited Liability Company Name
- Naming of the district court with registration number
- VAT identification number (VAT ID) if available; for Ltd.s in formation this is sometimes not yet available
- Managing Director's Name
Other legal forms
For other legal forms than the Ltd. you should get yourself informed about which information is required.
For associations, for example, the registry court is to be named and, as far as I know, a representative statement must also be made.
Other information: Recommendations
In addition to the legally prescribed information, it is advisable to include further hints in the imprint. This can help avoid or at least reduce liability issues.
Disclaimer
The disclaimer is well known and has been found on almost every website for several years now. With it, the person responsible distances themselves from linked pages and their content. However, the linked content should have been checked at least once – namely at the time of linking – to be true. A legal security is not established by this anyway. The Hamburg District Court had ruled that the linker can even be held liable for linked contents in individual cases. An indication of the disclaimer is not only unnecessary but can even be harmful. Therefore, we recommend not mentioning the Disclaimer in the imprint.
Copyright law
This explains that the images and other media used on the website are subject to copyright and cannot be freely used. This also includes texts. Furthermore, this can be stated as a request for information in case of an unintentional copyright infringement, so that the infringement can be rectified. However, this statement is not protection against warnings, but rather a declaration of intent. The chance of a friendly settlement increases with something like this.
Alternative Dispute Resolution
For all relevant parties selling goods or services online. You must indicate alternative dispute resolution and add a link to the EU's dispute settlement body. In addition, especially smaller businesses can choose whether they are willing to participate in a dispute resolution procedure or not. Tip: Do not just insert the notice when selling goods on eBay only in the terms of use, but also on the sales page itself. We know of a lawsuit where an eBay seller was fined by a competitor because he mentioned the dispute resolution clause only in the terms of use. Normally, mentioning it in the terms of use should be sufficient since a customer can only have a dispute with a trader if they are customers and therefore must have read the terms of use. Whoever wants to play it safe also makes the statement outside of the terms of use.
Liability disclaimer
A clause for liability exclusion reduces the risk of liability. The operator declares that liability will be excluded for certain damages, provided there is no gross negligence. However, the liability exclusion should only be declared for contents that are free of charge and freely accessible. Otherwise, a competition law infringement could exist. With online shops, for example, a general liability exclusion would contradict one's own terms and conditions (AGB).
Image sources
If images from third parties were used and no sufficient author attribution was made directly on the images, it should be found in a section about image sources. This can only happen if the image source itself allows this. For some image portals, it is allowed to mention them in the imprint. However, for Wikipedia images, it is not sufficient to mention the author attribution on the page with the image; it must take place on the page with the image and preferably even directly at the image (above or below).
Conclusion
The imprint consists on the one hand of a statement dependent on the legal form, which contains in addition to the address a few more individual information. Furthermore, the imprint is statically set up and offers space for standard phrases, which help to reduce the legal risk of operating an internet presence. In contrast to the data protection declaration, the imprint can be created by anyone who is informed. As shown with the disclaimer and the liability release, one should be very well-informed not to make a mistake.
The website check by Dr. GDPR already thoroughly checks the legal notice.
Key messages
Imprints are legally required for most websites in Germany and must contain specific information like the website owner's name, address, and contact details.
The imprint should also include information about the editorial content responsible person and their contact details.
While disclaimers are common, they don't offer legal protection and can even be harmful, so it's recommended to omit them from the imprint.
My name is Klaus Meffert. I have a doctorate in computer science and have been working professionally and practically with information technology for over 30 years. I also work as an expert in IT & data protection. I achieve my results by looking at technology and law. This seems absolutely essential to me when it comes to digital data protection. My company, IT Logic GmbH, also offers consulting and development of optimized and secure AI solutions.
