Comment by dabedee
2 days ago
This Leipzig ruling is notable, but the practical impact may be more limited than the €5,000 figure suggests. While the court explicitly said users don't need to prove individual damages to sue, European class action mechanisms are still quite different from US-style litigation.
Germany doesn't have the same litigation incentive structures as the US - no contingency fees, loser-pays costs, and relatively limited collective redress options. Most German consumers aren't going to file individual €5,000 lawsuits over tracking pixels, especially given the legal costs and time involved.
Personally, I hope this gets picked up by a consumer protection organization or a well-funded litigation group. Germany has been gradually expanding its collective action framework, but it's still primarily driven by qualified entities rather than individual plaintiffs.
In Germany consumers are opted in by default, unlike all other European Countries.
This is also why there currently are class action lawsuits against X and Tiktok based in Germany with claims of damages of EUR 500 and EUR 2000.
Sounds like something someone could commoditise. 2500 free euro! Sign here!
AFAIK that business model already works with rental contracts.
It definitely does for canceled/delayed flight tickets. Some years ago we had a flight that was canceled in the last minute by TAP and we missed one day from our trip. We got 600€ back from each ticket just by signing up to a website and sending the ticket receipts.
In Sweden I've seen quite a few businesses sprung up for that, collecting overpaid rent through a legal firm.
Completely agree that if it's a similarly straightforward process there will be businesses offering to litigate on the users' behalf and collect a fee, I'd be jumping on it if I only had to file a report and wait for the work to be done to collect a couple thousand €.
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