Vague dates like "coming soon" or "shipping soon" to lure pre-orders is outlawed in Germany

more info here
https://www.techpowerup.com/245920/german-court-bans-vague-dates-like-coming-soon-in-marketing-and-sales

6 years ago

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6 years ago
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it will

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no, the opposite, as far as I understand it in our german media in the last days, the customer now always have to see an exact release date for a product when preordering/buying. that date still could be changed later but you have to get an real and no vague estimation at first

6 years ago*
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Fallout 5, preoder help Bethesda kickstart this game now!

done <3

6 years ago
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It will get quite interestin in cases of digital pre-order, when you receive additional products instantly, e.g. pre-order Fallout 5 and get FO4 for free now. I am pretty sure that a full refund in this case will be refused, even if there is a huge delay. Somebody has to take it to court again then.

6 years ago
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Perhaps the biggest impact of this ruling will fall on the real-estate industry.

They got that right.

6 years ago
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I don't think any buildings here were ever sold with exact date. It's always "early 2019, don't wait before best apartment will be sold out!".

6 years ago
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Ah, I meant to reply to this earlier, but I was spammed to death today.

It's the same here, and with good reason. Having spent a great deal of time in the carpentry trade (8 years, primarily in residential construction), I can say there are any number of unforeseen circumstances that can arise during home construction - lumber/supply availability, shipment delays, manufacturer errors, and weather, just to name a few.

The way I see it, a few things can happen now with the new ruling -
1) Deadlines will be pushed out further than previously.
2) The quality of work will decline to make deadlines (I've seen this one most often, unfortunately)
3) The cost of new construction will rise to meet the loss due to refunds.

6 years ago
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I'd vote for 1st option. Apartments are pricey as they are, they'd be at loss trying to keep their ways and throw costs of it at customers.

Developers don't build 1st apartment house. They have built dozens before. So they know more or less how long it takes. And then how long they must fix issues that can came up along the way. So they should be able to write "1st June!" instead of "early 2019!". They can also always state date with wide margin of error and then deliver apartments before this date. Don't think there is law putting fines on someone for doing their job earlier :P

6 years ago
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With apartments it'll definitely be easier to establish a set deadline and meet it. Who can meet the deadline first is typically what determines who gets the contract (correction: along with lowest cost), because empty land isn't making anyone any money.

I was thinking more about custom homes, though. In those cases, I believe it'll be a mix of all three. Of course, the German housing market may be completely different than it is here. Obviously, I'm just speculating based on my own experience in the trade (a trade I dropped out of a few years ago due to the housing market crash).

6 years ago
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So no more green blood "coming soon"! :O

6 years ago
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Groupees is doomed then.

6 years ago
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So, no more:
"You wanna go out with me?"
"Maybe"
:D

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What?

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6 years ago
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I still don't get it.
Were you watching a movie that had the same dialogue? If so that was purely coincidental.
not really, we're watching you ;)

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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Does it go for TBA too? OK, read the article, it's just for preorders, not for "coming soon" without taking payments upfront.

6 years ago*
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should be that, if you take money upfront, you have to give a date.

still, big doubts this will be actually useful for customers...

6 years ago
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Vague dates:
"Do you want to date with me someday??" will be illegal.

6 years ago
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So E3 stream will be banned in germany? Like half of the Youtube lmao

6 years ago
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No.

6 years ago
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Media Markt soll Urteil annehmen
Am 17. Mai 2018 bestätigten die Richter des Oberlandesgerichts dieses Urteil in vollem Umfang (Az. 6 U 3815/17), die Revision beim Bundesgerichtshof wurde nicht zugelassen. Rechtskräftig ist das Urteil allerdings noch nicht, es besteht befristet die Möglichkeit zur Beschwerde.

...

Gegenüber heise.de erklärte eine Media-Markt-Sprecherin jedoch, dass auf eine solche verzichtet werden soll. Zudem wird ergänzt, dass solche Hinweise früher bei noch nicht lieferbaren Artikeln verwendet wurden und dies jedoch bereits seit Januar 2017 nicht mehr vor käme. Der Klagegegenstand hat sich somit längst erledigt, so die Sprecherin.

can someone translate/explain me this (especially the second part)?.

google says: "But heise.de told a media market spokeswoman, however, that should be waived." but can't understand "what" could be waived :D

from here

6 years ago
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The first part says that the court desicion is not yet valid, because media market could still enter an objection in a limited amount of time.

But in the second part the media market spokeswoman says that they won't object. And she says that those terms (coming soon, ...) were used some time ago for not yet available products, but haven't been used since january 2017 now. So they don't really care about the court decision.

I hope this helps and sorry for the many mistakes :D

6 years ago
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thank you!

really clearer now :D

6 years ago
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why do you are so interested in german law when you arnt german? O.o i dont think it will affect italy in any way?

6 years ago
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cause i'm european. that's the reason.

6 years ago
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It is my impression that quite a few german consumer laws are made into EU law sooner or later.

6 years ago
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yep, even if i think we (EU) are really far from, say, US... we still act as a single country, even with things like this one, that aren't "german" or "european"... when you try to regulate something internet you should (try to) think "globally", that's what internet is.

far, we're far also because the few european laws treat only economic/financial matters...
our strongest feeling of "unity" came from a currency. and it's still like that.

so, yes, Oppen. this looks like a good candidate to become an EU law ;)

6 years ago
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Like certain anti-lootbox laws that spawned here in Holland, Belgium and will spread all over the EU no doubt very soonish too.

6 years ago
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How about getting rid of "More than X items on sale up to 95% off!" while they're at it.

6 years ago
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Does this include crowdfunding? Most of those campaigns are a glorified preorder, so I can see the lawsuit happening on a kickstarter that gets delayed/fails

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6 years ago
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Everything I've read on the topic today has pointed me toward crowd-funding being treated as an investment rather than a purchase.
To be fair, everything I read was also speculation on the topic, and I couldn't find anything concrete at all either way.

6 years ago
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Aren't you forced to put a delivery date on Kickstarter at least?

6 years ago
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"German Court Bans Vague Dates"

you'll need to bring your criminal record and hiv/hpv test results to the first date

6 years ago
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Closed 6 years ago by icaio.