Presenting your business convincingly and in compliance with the law
A professional business presentation should clearly show interested parties who you are, which services or products you offer and the terms on which they are offered.
All information must be accurate, up to date and understandable. Business profiles and offers must not contain misleading or otherwise unlawful business statements.
1. Presenting the business and its services truthfully
Describe your business, field of activity, goods and services as specifically as possible.
Statements about, in particular,
qualifications,
professional competence,
certificates,
authorisations,
memberships,
awards,
references,
special experience, or
guarantees
may be made only if they actually exist and are accurate in substance.
Under § 5 UWG, false or potentially deceptive statements about the entrepreneur's characteristics, competence, status, authorisations, memberships or awards may in particular constitute a misleading commercial practice.
Statements about the characteristics, availability, benefits or results of goods or services must likewise not be misleading.
2. Contact details and provider information
Use up-to-date business and contact details and clearly explain how interested parties can reach you.
Where a legal notice is required under § 5 DDG, the required provider information must be easily recognisable, directly accessible and permanently available. Depending on the business, this includes in particular the name or company name, address, electronic contact options, authorised representatives where applicable, register details and other legally required information.
If the address, legal form, business name or authorised representatives change, for example, the information should be updated without delay.
3. Prices and essential offer terms
Price indications must be accurate and clearly attributable to the relevant offer.
Anyone offering goods or services to consumers with an indication of prices, or advertising prices to consumers, must generally state the total price. This includes VAT and other price components.
Depending on the offer, information about shipping costs, unit prices, delivery terms or other costs may also be required.
Essential information should be provided where interested parties need it in connection with the relevant offer. Statutory information obligations must not be circumvented by placing information only somewhere difficult to find.
4. Images, logos and texts
Use images, graphics, videos, logos, texts and other content only if you are entitled to use them or statutory permission exists.
Authors may grant other persons rights to use their works. The scope and limits of those rights are governed in particular by the relevant agreement and § 31 UrhG.
Simply finding an image or text on the internet therefore does not mean that the content may be freely used for business purposes.
If people are recognisable in images, their rights may also need to be observed. § 22 KunstUrhG generally provides that portraits may be distributed or publicly displayed only with the depicted person's consent; statutory exceptions remain unaffected.
5. Customer testimonials and reviews
Customer testimonials and reviews must be reproduced authentically.
Fake consumer reviews or recommendations and commissioning them are prohibited under the UWG. Reviews must likewise not be misleadingly presented as reviews by actual customers where the necessary basis for doing so is absent.
Anyone making consumer reviews publicly accessible must also explain, under § 5b(3) UWG, whether and how they ensure that published reviews actually come from consumers who have used or purchased the goods or services concerned.
If a customer's name, photograph, company or other personal information is published with a testimonial, an additional lawful basis under data protection law is required.
6. Personal and confidential information
Publish only personal data in the business profile that is necessary for the intended purpose and may lawfully be processed.
Article 5 GDPR includes the principles of purpose limitation and data minimisation. Personal data must be limited to what is necessary for the relevant purpose. Processing is lawful only where a legal basis under Article 6 GDPR exists.
In particular, the following do not belong in a public business profile:
copies or numbers of identity documents,
bank login details,
passwords or other login details,
internal tax or accounting records,
confidential business documents, or
personal data of employees, customers or other third parties without a sufficient legal basis.
7. Keeping the business profile up to date
Review your business presentation regularly.
In particular, update information when changes occur to
services or product offerings,
opening hours or hours of availability,
contact details,
address,
legal form,
authorised representatives,
authorisations, or
other essential business information.
Outdated or contradictory information may mislead interested parties and should therefore be corrected promptly.
Note
A complete and factual business presentation helps interested parties make an informed decision. However, it does not replace the statutory information that may additionally be required for a particular offer or subsequent contract.
The user concerned is responsible for the accuracy, lawfulness and currency of the business information published by the entrepreneur.
