Comment by tgsovlerkhgsel

I think there are two reasons why it works in practice in Germany:

a) much lower tolerance for this kind of thing - if a company does this, people will consider them scammers, so there is a high cost to repeatedly trying tricks like this

b) the Verbraucherzentralen, consumer rights organizations that can sue on behalf of all consumers (not in the sense of a class action suit, but in the sense of making a company stop an abusive practice). They also generate press releases, leading to the above-mentioned reputational damage.

I'm still disappointed that obvious scams (e.g. hiding a subscription that very few customers would knowingly agree to in the fine print) are handled through this system, instead of the criminal justice system. You still need the civil system for the less egregious cases, but if you send the obvious ones to jail, fewer will try to "dance around the line".

Edit: Completely forgot - your competitors can also sue you/get an injunction to stop you from engaging in unfair business practices.