Legal conditions
On the OTTO marketplace, it is possible for the same product to be offered several times, for example by different sellers, or offers which are different in price and delivery time. In the case of advertisements, the seller of the product in question must be indicated. If the advertisement is not about a specific product but, for example, about an entire product range, it must be made clear that the advertisement contains offers from several sellers.
Assortment application
One or more products represent an assortment of different suppliers in the store, e.g. a tent for camping; console, smartphone, headphones and smartwatch for multimedia.
- One or more products represent different assortments or assortment variety
- Output of a minimum price, e.g. “Pants from 10,99 €”.
- Link target: dashboard, topic page, assortment entry or brand store
- “Sternchentext” text must be specified:
“Assortment advertising contains offers from the seller OTTO and/or other sellers in the store”.
For any placements, the “sternchentext” can be placed on the ad or in the text directly below it.
Below are examples of how to use the asterisk text correctly.
Placement example:
- Display of multiple products
- Star text on the image
Placement example:
- Minimum price
- One product representative for a whole assortment
- “Sternchentext” under the image
If you have any further questions, please contact our affiliate team.
Product application
Product advertising exists when
- a specific product is advertised with the name of the article
- the price is stated
- a single product is shown
- the seller must be indicated
The display of the OTTO logo or “otto.de” is no longer sufficient. The seller of the product must be indicated in the product tile or on the product detail page. You can find the seller name in the product data feed in the corresponding column.
Below are examples of how to use the seller name correctly.
Placement example:
- Product or price search engine
- Seller naming under the logo
Placement example:
- Product in a promotional product insert
- Promotional product
If you have any further questions, please contact our affiliate team.
Legal circumstances
The duty of naming the concrete seller of products of marketplaces on product ads within affiliate programs and/or display ad campaigns results from general principles of competition about misleading commercial practices (§§5, 5a UWG (Act against Unfair Competition)), and furthermore, from the judged principles of the allocation of responsibility in intellectual property law. The observer of ads will / can assume that a product that is promoted under the sole logo of a marketplace, is also sold by it. Consequently, in case of doubt, the operator of the marketplace will be hold responsible for the concrete design of the ad. In the context of trademark law this has been confirmed again very clearly in the case of Amazon and Louboutin.
Indeed, the impression could arise that Amazon intentionally uses Louboutin’s trademark which is part of an ad from a third-party supplier. This may always be the case when, in the perception of a reasonably well-informed and reasonably observant internet user, Amazon acts like the vendor who is advertising the trademark violating items.“
(following ECJ judgement; Urt. v. 22.12.2022, Az. C-148/21; C-184/21)
Judgment from the ECJ:
The operator of an online sales platform which, in addition to that operator’s own offers for sale, includes an online marketplace, may itself be deemed to be using a sign which is identical to another’s EU trade mark in relation to goods which are identical to those for which that trade mark is registered, where third party sellers offer for sale on that marketplace such goods bearing that sign without the consent of the proprietor of that trade mark, in so far as a normally informed and reasonably attentive user of that platform establishes a link between the services of that operator and the sign in question, which is the case, in particular, where, having regard to all the circumstances of the case, such a user might have the impression that that operator is the one marketing the goods bearing that sign himself, in his own name and on his own account. It is relevant that that operator presents the offers published on its platform in a uniform manner by displaying the advertisements for the goods sold in its own name and on its own account together with the advertisements for the goods offered by third parties on the marketplace concerned, that it displays its own logo as a reputable distributor on all those advertisements and that, in the context of the distribution of the goods bearing the sign in question, it offers additional services to third parties consisting, inter alia, in storing and dispatching those goods.