unfair competition
noun · unlauterer Wettbewerb
German unfair competition law is a codified system rather than a set of torts: § 3 Abs. 1 UWG declares unfair commercial practices unlawful, and the following provisions define what unfair means. What surprises common-law readers most is who may sue, since competitors and listed associations enforce the rules, § 8 Abs. 3 UWG, while the individual consumer has no claim of his own.
Which translation, when
Why
Unfair competition translates as unlauterer Wettbewerb, and the difference from the common-law picture is structural. English and American law approach the field through separate torts and statutes; German law codifies it in the Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb, whose § 3 Abs. 1 states a general clause, unfair commercial practices are unlawful, and whose following provisions define unfairness: misleading acts and misleading omissions in §§ 5 and 5a, aggressive practices in § 4a, comparative advertising in § 6, the impediment of competitors and the imitation of goods in § 4, the breach of statutory market-conduct rules in § 3a, and an annex to the Act listing practices towards consumers that are always unlawful. The enforcement architecture is the point a translation must convey, because it inverts English expectations. Under § 8 Abs. 3 UWG the claims belong to competitors who trade in the goods or services to a not insignificant extent, to trade associations entered on the list kept by the Federal Office of Justice and to qualified entities on the statutory lists; the individual consumer, though protected by the Act, has no claim under it, and the risk that standing is used commercially is addressed by § 8c UWG, which bars abusive assertion. The remedies themselves are strong: § 8 Abs. 1 gives removal and, where repetition threatens, an injunction, and the injunction claim arises already when a contravention is merely imminent, without any fault; damages under § 9 need fault. How that claim is enforced, through the substantive Unterlassungsanspruch and the fast einstweilige Verfügung, belongs to the injunction entry. On the vocabulary, the field is unlauterer Wettbewerb, the single practice an unlautere geschäftliche Handlung, and Wettbewerbsrecht is the umbrella that also covers cartel law.
Typical mistakes
- Standing under § 8 Abs. 3 UWG lies with competitors and listed associations, so a translation suggesting that the affected consumer may sue on the Act misstates the enforcement architecture.
- The injunction claim of § 8 Abs. 1 UWG needs no fault and arises on a threatened contravention, so treating unfair competition as a damages tort understates it.
- Wettbewerbsrecht covers cartel law as well, so using it as the equivalent of unfair competition law widens the term beyond the UWG.
What matters
Advising on a German advertising complaint: the note should identify the practice as an unlautere geschäftliche Handlung under the relevant UWG provision, check standing under § 8 Abs. 3 UWG, and keep damages and injunction apart.
What the machine misses
Machine output for unfair competition gives unfairer Wettbewerb, a calque the statute does not use, and the field is the unlauterer Wettbewerb of the UWG with the general clause of § 3 Abs. 1 and the standing rules of § 8 Abs. 3, under which competitors and listed associations sue while the individual consumer does not; the calque hides both the codification and the enforcement architecture.
Examples
| unfair competition | unlauterer Wettbewerb |
| an unfair commercial practice | eine unlautere geschäftliche Handlung |
| misleading advertising | irreführende Werbung |
| a competitor may claim an injunction | ein Mitbewerber kann Unterlassung verlangen |
More notes on these sections
injunction einstweilige Verfügung