Impressum (German issue) (10)
Hi,
I have a question about approaching Affiliate Marketing from a country like Germany. So maybe some Germans can chime in, I would really appreciate it.
I know you can´t give legal advice, but maybe you can point me in the right direction.
In Germany you have the obligation to have an "Impressum". I think it´s "imprint" in english.
That means you need a section on your webpage that contains your full name, your full address (no post-office box) and electronic means to contact you. Almost every website (especially with a commercial focus) needs one. So a whois guard becomes obsolete...
By violating this, you have to pay up to €50,000. I only heard of fees up to a couple thousands though. Maybe the max. is for big corporations.
Nevertheless, it surely can get pretty expensive if you make decent cash.
As CPA Marketing is almost unknown in the German blogosphere and law blogs, I don´t know if it applies to a simple 1-page landing page too, especially if you target a foreign country with a .com/.info domain (+ whois guard) and use US hosting.
Maybe I should ask a lawyer (but it´s hard to find one who understands AM).
My concern is that if someday I get sued for some reasons and an "international law"-savvy lawyer gets my domain registration info, that he will forward it to the "consumer protection" agency...
That is if it´s true that a simple LP needs such a thing. Maybe I am over-thinking this, but I prefer to be on the safe side.
Comparing it to countries like USA who don´t have such a thing, I am seeing it as a severe disadvantage.
- Who wants to display his/her private home address on an adult lander? Maybe your boss does a search on you.
- Landing pages can be googled. Maybe POF + robot.txt can solve this, I don´t know.
- There are crazy people out there.
- http://www.ppc.bz/important/let-me-t...ois-protection
Thanks for your input!
You may find that there are firms out there who can provide you with a business contact name and address - that's certainly the case in the UK.
However, I don't know German law specifically. Anyone?
*bump*
Any of the german guys here could give some help?
According to a law it says that "Online services" require the Impressum. Privat websites are excluded.
I wouldn't say that a simple landing page is an Online service as we simply redirect the visitor the the offer. And every German offer has the Impressum.
yea none of my german landers have impressum either
but i also try to avoid .de domains and german hosting
Originally Posted by phlong
Get whois protection and use a fake postbox in Turkey or any other country as a fake Impressum.
It's not bulletproof but you have to think about how those lawyers are making money. It's way too much work to get the real names behind a whois protection if they have no real legal ground. Those guys usually go for the low hanging fruit. They are not interested in spending half their day trying to track down one guy that might has to pay like 300 bucks if he gets caught. I've heard of lawsuits for deceptive advertising for 200k Euro which got settled for under 1k and a written apology.
I would never advocate doing something illegal but I have heard tales and stories of people using this exact same method for years.
Awesome! Thanks for the feedback!
Actually I am just thinking about getting into the adult niche and I don't want my family and friends to find out about it. 
May I ask which hoster do you use if you want to stay private?
I guess the hoster should be relatively close to Germany but it shouldn't be a german one because that make it harder for lawyers to get to know your true identity?
Any hosters you could recommend for the German/Swiss/Austria market?
Offshore hosting would be over the top I guess? That's more for peaople with criminal intentions.
Thanks a bunch!
Originally Posted by jersey
Actually I am just thinking about getting into the adult niche and I don't want my family and friends to find out about it.
May I ask which hoster do you use if you want to stay private?
I guess the hoster should be relatively close to Germany but it shouldn't be a german one because that make it harder for lawyers to get to know your true identity?
Any hosters you could recommend for the German/Swiss/Austria market?
Offshore hosting would be over the top I guess? That's more for peaople with criminal intentions.
Thanks a bunch!
If a site is hosted outside Germany and not a .de (though even .de can be registered through Turkey - mediaon - with whois protection) how is it German? Just because there's German language on it?
Pretty much agree with Ibanez, the 'Abmahnungsgeschäft' is based on easily to find mistakes, by simply whois'ing denic.de for example. So outside Germany hosting combined with whois protection is pretty much gonna do the job.
Well, Edis offers VPS in France, Austria, Switzerland and Poland so they may be a good place to check out if you want a server as close as possible but not inside Germany. Edis also has dedicated servers available in Austria/Switzerland. Can't testify to performance but they seem to have the locations you'd want.
I believe they are incorporated in Austria.
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