AW: Down Under: Nachhilfe für Seehofer und andere
In this thread we are discussing the difference between different practices of enforcing commercial law in Germany, Australia and U.K.
Although German politicians use to ensure us every day that Germany had one of the strictest trade laws and consumer-protection on earth, we more and more feel that this is nothing but a mock-up as soon as it comes to enforce existing law in Germany.
Your example of the ACCC tearing down websites of scammers in Australa shows how many power the ACCC seems to have.
In Germany, I would regard such action as nearly unthinkable. In Germany, there really is no comparable organisation having the power to do such.
We do not have any governmential organisation comparable to the ACCC or the "Office Of Fair Trade" in U.K., enforcing fair trade. In Germany, this task was delegated to non-governmential organisations like e.g. the "Wettbewerbszentrale" which is an association of members from industry, self-monitoring the scene (sometimes only "watching the game").
Although one really cannot say Wettbewerbszentrale stays inactive, her power is very, very limited. As a non-state-controlled agency, she does not have any executional powers. She simply cannot "shut down websites". She can only try the long judicial way to Tipperary by filing suit under German trade law ("Gesetz gegen unlauteren Wettbewerb", UWG). Of course that takes a long, long time, and as soon as a verdict is achieved against a fraudulent company, the fraudsters simply change their dirty cloak, open up new rogue-companies with new names, continuing the good old dirty business as if nothing had happened at all.
This is possible because any verdict only refers to an action in one specific case, dealing with one specific company. If the company simply changed her name, the whole legal lawsuit trail has to be stepped right from the start again.
In Germany, since 3 years we have multiple problems with rogue companies opening up fraudulent websites where victims are trapped into a mocked "agreement", maintaining that they have to pay for using the site, only because they missed to recognize a funny "price disclaimer" which is camouflaged in the footprint of the website. These sites will never be shut down, because there is no governmential German organisation having the power to do so.
And German law of debt collection does not open any doorway to inhibit fraudulent debt-collectors from maintaining that the victim has to pay. They can harass you here with ten dunning letters, if they want to do so.
A criminal website in Germany can only be shut down by order of a state-attourney, but that will happen only in severe criminal cases like child porn.
We also compared the action of the British OFTA, lagging some Call-In-TV-Shows to pay millions of pounds because of fraudulent behaviour.
That´s also an example of what would perhaps never happen in Germany. Because the "Landesmedienanstalten" which are the cotton-bud armies who have to watch that game simply look away. "Whazzuuuuuup? - Having a buuuuud, whatching the gaaaame...."
I use to say that Germany is a biotope for fraudsters in web and premium-industry. Maybe only in Russia you can do it even worse, when paying to the right heads. Of course, in Russia, as a fraudster you should never forget paying your monthly rates, because that might result in somebody finding you with a bullet in your cerebellum. That seems to be the only difference.