Cologne freebie war drags on
More than six years after the closure of free dailies in the German city of Cologne, the issue is still very much on the minds of German publishers. In December 1999 Schibsted launched 20 Minuten in Cologne, followed by spoilers from local publisher DuMont Schauberg and Alex Springer (Bild Zeitung). In July 2001 Schibsted gave up, the two others also closed down.
DuMont took Schibsted to court after the launch on various grounds. Key argument was that a free newspaper was not a ‘real’ newspaper so it was not protected by law like ‘regular’ newspapers. Also it was argued that free dailies lead to ‘unfair’ competition. Details on these arguments can be found in Holznagel (2006), in German. In 2003 the courts decided that the complaints were not valid so free and paid newspapers should be treated alike.
Dumont Schauberg appealed, and now, in 2007, a higher court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) had another verdict. It decided that they could not decide — because the paper was shut down so the issue resolved itself. Matthias Schulenberg, spokesman for Dumont explained that this means that “no publisher who wants to publish a free daily in Germany can be sure that the court will not stop them”.
The court rule, actually, could be read the other way around as well: the first verdict still stands, free papers are protected by law just like any other paper. But the Gratis-Angst has a firm grip on German publisher. And they probably still think market conditions can be changed by court orders. These conditions in Germany are at the bottom end in Europe: a drop of 17% between 1995 and 2006. And no free dailies to blame because there aren’t any.
But any attempt will be met with legal action. “This means we can go to court again when a new competing free daily will launch” according to DuMont CEO Konstantin Neven DuMont.
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:24 am
Wow this is great insight on how the media and the law works in Germany. I wish I could read German because I would love to investigate this further.
December 22nd, 2009 at 1:21 am
[...] On July 11, 20 Minuten distributed its last issue in Cologne; Extra and Kölner Morgen closed down on July 12 and 13. The legal battle went on for years, in 2007 the last verdict was that the courts would not decide on the unfair competition issue because 20 Minuten was no longer published. Dumont Schauberg CEO Neven Dumont immediately declared that he would go to court again the moment a new free daily would launch in Germany (see previous post). [...]