Nach zwei aktuellen Entscheidungen des BGH (Urteil vom 23.01.2018 – XI ZR 298/17 und Urteil vom 25.04.2017 – XI ZR 314/16) kann ein Verbraucherdarlehensvertrag widerrufen werden, obwohl das Darlehen bereits getilgt und der Vertrag damit beendet worden ist. Das Recht, einen Verbraucherdarlehensvertrag zu widerrufen, kann jedoch verwirkt werden.
Es entspricht der materiellen Gerechtigkeit, dass die Schäden infolge der Unverkäuflichkeit von Dieselfahrzeugen dort liquidiert werden, wo sie verursacht worden sind, nämlich bei der Automobilindustrie. Die Möglichkeit hierzu bietet für Verbraucher ein Widerruf des Finanzierungsvertrages mit der jeweiligen Herstellerbank (Volkswagen Bank u.a.) mit der Folge, dass das Fahrzeug gegen Erstattung der Tilgungsleistungen zurückgegeben werden kann.
Note: This is an update to this author’s earlier article from 2016, see: Berlin District Court: Facebook must grant heirs access to a deceased person’s account (2016).
In December 2015, the Local District Court of Berlin had decreed that Facebook must grant the heirs of a deceased user access to the deceased’s Facebook account (Landgericht Berlin, Urteil vom 17.12.2015, Az. 20 O 172/15). This ruling was overturned by the Berlin Court of Appeals at the end of May 2017 (Kammergericht, Urteil vom 31.05.2017, Az. 21 U 9/16).
The German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) has ruled that it may no longer be legal to commercially offer bots for online games (BGH, Urteil vom 6. Oktober 2016, I ZR 25/15 – World of Warcraft I).
Bots are automatic programs that can perform certain in-game tasks on their own without assistance by the human player being. In many online games bots can be employed to make certain things which could otherwise be tedious and time-consuming easier and quicker and more comfortable for the player, for example to farm supplies, level-up characters etc.
The German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) has ruled that it may no longer be legal to commercially offer bots for online games (BGH, Urteil vom 6. Oktober 2016, I ZR 25/15 – World of Warcraft I).
Bots are automatic programs that can perform certain in-game tasks on their own without assistance by the human player being. In many online games bots can be employed to make certain things which could otherwise be tedious and time-consuming easier and quicker and more comfortable for the player, for example to farm supplies, level-up characters etc.
(BGH, Urteil vom 19.01.2017, Az. I ZR 242/15)
Der Bundesgerichtshof hat am 19. Januar 2017 ein Urteil zur Reichweite der Panoramafreiheit gefällt. Inhaltlich geht es in diesem Fall um eine interessante und bislang in höchstrichterlicher Rechtsprechung und Fachliteratur ungeklärte Fallkonstellation aus dem Urheberrecht.
In September 2016 the European Court of Justice handed down a judgement which many observers believe could endanger the freedom of placing hyperlinks, thereby compromising a core functionality of the Internet and free speech (European Court of Justice, judgement of 8 September 2016 in Case C 160/15 – GS Media vs. Sanoma/Playboy vs. GeenStijl, see full text of the judgement here).
Das Oberlandesgericht Oldenburg hatte einer ehemaligen Marktleiterin der Firma Thomas Philipps einen Handelsvertreterausgleich in Höhe von ca. EUR 189.000,00 zuerkannt.
Machine-generated data is increasingly gaining in importance and relevance to business activities.
Cloud services, online and mobile user activities, server logs, vehicle telemetry, car-sharing services, sensor data, processes in the manufacturing and transport industry generate huge amounts of data. In Germany, a prominent buzzword for this is Industrie 4.0. The internet of things and smart devices are moving from buzzwords to actual facts of daily life. Big data thus generated can be mined and analyzed, and may form the basis for data-driven innovations in new commercial products and services, enabling customized information products and concepts like predicting consumer behavior, predictive maintenance and precision logistics and stock-keeping. Such data may become a business asset in itself and may become a valuable commodity.
This raises the question of data ownership, that is, if and how such data can be legally protected.
The Berlin Court of Appeals has ruled that WhatsApp’s Terms and Conditions do not bind German consumers, as long as they are available only in English and as long as there is no German version or translation (Kammergericht, Urteil vom 08.04.2016, Az. 5 U 156/14, link to the full decision on the Verbraucherzentrale website).
