Disclaimers, often referred to as "disclaimers", for links and content on one's own site should be used with restraint, if at all.
The following should be noted: With regard to the use of external links, a judgement of the Hamburg Regional Court of 12.5.1998 (file no. 312 O 85/98) is often cited, according to which a dissociation by means of a disclaimer is supposedly required. However, the judgement says the exact opposite: a disclaimer is not sufficient to distance oneself from external links. A sentence such as "No liability for external links" is therefore ineffective. If the website operator learns of illegal content - e.g. through a notice - to which he links, he must immediately remove the link in question.
According to the case law of the Higher Regional Court of Munich, the website operator has a duty to check if he sets and maintains links (judgement of 29.4.2008 - 18 U 5646/07).
Disclaimer for topicality and correctness
Even disclaimers that contain a disclaimer for the topicality and correctness of the information provided should not be used. First of all, this is a general terms and conditions clause within the meaning of §§ 305 et seq. BGB (German Civil Code), because the disclaimer applies to a large number of contracts concluded via the website (for consumer transactions, a single use is sufficient). Furthermore, the use is highly problematic, because the OLG Hamburg (decision of 10.12.2012 - 5 W 118/12) considers such a statement to be a blanket exclusion of liability for the own products offered.
Exclusions of liability that refer to bearing costs, e.g. that a warning without prior contact leads to an exclusion of bearing the warning costs, are also ineffective. On the one hand, they neither prevent warning letters nor do they have any effect on a statutory claim for reimbursement of costs. On the contrary, such a provision can lead to the fact that in the event that one is the one who issues a warning notice, one cannot claim the corresponding costs, as the Higher Regional Court of Hamm (Case No. I - 4 U 169/11) sees this as an unfaithful conduct to apply different standards for warning notices that affect oneself or others.
Disclaimer for copyright in own content
Disclaimers that are supposed to protect the copyright to one's own content are on the one hand superfluous, and on the other hand may even be a starting point for warning letters. Copyright in one's own content is not created by a disclaimer but, according to Section 7 UrhG, at the moment the work is created (e.g. when photographing or writing a text). For short, purely informative texts that do not reach the level of intellectual creation of a work within the meaning of the Copyright Act, a disclaimer does not change anything. It is therefore superfluous. However, it can even be problematic because it suggests that the website operator holds the copyright to all content published on the website. However, if stock photos from stock photo archives are used, for example, the copyright does not usually lie with the website operator. Rather, the website operator may merely use the images.
Disclaimer without serious benefit
In summary, it can be said that disclaimers are of no serious use and, on the contrary, even harbour some risks. The fact is: as soon as an entrepreneur becomes aware of a legal violation, e.g. copyright infringement, on his own website and does not remedy it immediately, even a pre-formulated disclaimer will not protect him. Your own content as well as external links to other websites should therefore be carefully checked and removed immediately if you become aware of a legal violation.
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