For a long time this was discussed, now the Bundesrat has agreed to the law against the warning abuse, which was already passed by the Bundestag. This is expected to come into force soon. The risk of abusive warnings should be reduced by reducing financial incentives for the warning officers.
This will be achieved by amending the law against unfair competition. In it the authority of competitors for warning is made dependent now among other things on the fact that this one drives or demands the competition goods or the competition services in not insignificant measure and not only occasionally. Associations, which can likewise warn, must have now at least 75 member enterprises and fulfill further criteria.
According to the new § 8b UWG, warnings are ineffective if a competitor claims a considerable number of violations of the same legal regulation through warnings, if the number of violations claimed is disproportionate to the scope of the own business activity or if it is to be assumed, that the competitor does not bear the economic risk of the out-of-court and judicial proceedings himself, that a competitor sets the value of the object for a warning letter unreasonably high, that considerably excessive contractual penalties are agreed or demanded or that a proposed obligation to cease and desist goes considerably beyond the infringement for which a warning letter was issued.
In the case of the abusive assertion of claims, the dunned party can demand compensation from the dunning officer for the expenses necessary for his legal defense.