{"id":27593,"date":"2025-06-03T16:24:46","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T14:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/avantcore.de\/?p=27593"},"modified":"2025-10-07T14:56:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T12:56:04","slug":"focus-medical-seal-admissible-under-competition-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/avantcore.de\/en\/focus-medical-seal-admissible-under-competition-law\/","title":{"rendered":"FOCUS doctor seal in court: Munich Higher Regional Court declares the \"TOP Doctor\" and \"FOCUS Recommendation\" seals admissible in a clear decision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Munich Higher Regional Court (OLG) has ruled that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gesetze-bayern.de\/Content\/Document\/Y-300-Z-GRURRS-B-2025-N-11035\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Judgment of 22.05.2025 - 29 U 867\/23 e<\/a> decided that the FOCUS doctor seals \"TOP-Mediziner\" and \"FOCUS-Empfehlung\", which the magazine \"FOCUS GESUNDHEIT\" awards to selected doctors in return for license fees, do not constitute unlawful, misleading advertising within the meaning of the Unfair Competition Act (UWG).<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\r\n<h4><strong>What is the decision about?<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<p>The <strong>Key question <\/strong>is whether these seals are misleading because they suggest that the award-winning doctors occupy an objectively verifiable top position.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Relevance for practice:<\/strong> The decision affects not only doctors, but also providers of rankings, test institutes, publishers and all professional groups that advertise with quality seals.<\/p>\r\n<h4><strong>History of the decision<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-27595\" src=\"https:\/\/avantcore.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/stockphotoscom-8672425-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"FOCUS medical seal of approval Advertising\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/avantcore.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/stockphotoscom-8672425-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/avantcore.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/stockphotoscom-8672425-18x12.jpg 18w, https:\/\/avantcore.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/stockphotoscom-8672425.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\r\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wettbewerbszentrale.de\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Center for Combating Unfair Competition e. V.<\/a> had sued the publisher of the magazine \"FOCUS GESUNDHEIT\". The reason was the \"TOP-Mediziner\" and \"FOCUS Recommendation\" seals awarded by the publisher. These so-called FOCUS doctor seals can be used for advertising purposes by doctors awarded by the magazine in return for an annual license fee (\u20ac1,900 net).<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>The plaintiff's points of criticism:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>The seals suggested an objective assessment and thus a top position.<\/li>\r\n<li>The evaluation methodology contains many subjective elements (e.g. self-reports by doctors, patient evaluations and recommendations by colleagues).<\/li>\r\n<li>There is a lack of transparency regarding the selection, weighting and number of evaluations taken into account.<\/li>\r\n<li>The seals are therefore not reliable proof of quality, but are misleading.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p><strong>The publisher (defendant) defended itself:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>The lists were based on in-depth journalistic research.<\/li>\r\n<li>The awards are not seals of approval, but editorial recommendations.<\/li>\r\n<li>The methodology is transparent, comprehensible and open to public scrutiny.<\/li>\r\n<li>The advertising with the seal is merely a reference to the listing in the magazine.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>The Munich Regional Court I initially upheld the claim. However, the Munich Higher Regional Court overturned this ruling at second instance.<\/p>\r\n<h4><strong>How did the Munich Higher Regional Court rule on the FOCUS medical seal?<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ol>\r\n<li><strong> No violation of the prohibition of misleading statements (Section 5 UWG)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<p>The OLG Munich clarified:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>The FOCUS doctors' seals of approval are not \"technical test marks\", but editorial assessments.<\/li>\r\n<li>The relevant public (patients looking for a doctor) would recognize that it is a result of journalistic research, not an objective quality check.<\/li>\r\n<li>The use of the well-known \"FOCUS\" logo makes the editorial origin clear.<\/li>\r\n<li>There is no misleading information about an alleged objective top position of the award-winning doctors.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<ol start=\"2\">\r\n<li><strong> No obligation to disclose all valuation details (Section 5a UWG)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Although essential information must be provided, this has been done: The evaluation methodology can be viewed on the website.<\/li>\r\n<li>The fact that individual criteria are not \"mathematically\" weighted does not prevent transparency.<\/li>\r\n<li>A certain subjectivity is unavoidable in the assessment of medical services - the public does not expect a clinical laboratory analysis.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<ol start=\"3\">\r\n<li><strong> No misleading by \"test seal\" in the sense of the case law on product tests<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>The court differentiates between technical test seals (e.g. T\u00dcV, Stiftung Warentest) and editorial recommendations.<\/li>\r\n<li>The latter are permissible if the procedure is serious, comprehensible and transparent - which is the case here.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h4><strong>Conclusion and recommendations for action<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<p><strong>For doctors:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>You may continue to advertise with the FOCUS medical seal \"TOP-Mediziner\" and \"FOCUS Recommendation\" in the future - provided that use is based on a regular license.<\/li>\r\n<li>Make sure that you do not use the seal in isolation, but with explanatory information on the methodology. Ideally, you should link directly to the corresponding FOCUS page.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p><strong>For providers of rankings and rating platforms:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Transparent methodology, comprehensible criteria and a credible \"sender\" (e.g. a well-known media brand) are essential.<\/li>\r\n<li>Make sure your reviews don't come across as objective test marks - clear communication is key.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p><strong>For competitors and associations:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>A blanket objection to rankings is not legally promising if they are editorially researched, comprehensibly explained and not presented as a test mark.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>If you advertise with ratings or quality seals yourself or offer such a procedure and want to be on the safe side legally, <a href=\"https:\/\/avantcore.de\/en\/services\/beratung-werberecht\/\">advise<\/a> The experienced lawyers and specialist lawyers at <strong>AVANTCORE RECHTSANW\u00c4LTE<\/strong> in Stuttgart on all aspects of competition law - individually, competently and practically.<\/p>\r\n<p>We have often dealt with competition law issues relating to advertising with test seals and awards:<\/p>\r\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/avantcore.de\/en\/werbung-mit-einem-testergebnis-ausgezeichnet-ist-irrefuehrend\/\">Advertising with test result \"Excellent\" misleading?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/avantcore.de\/en\/werbung-mit-ebay-pruefsiegel-unlauter\/\">Unfair advertising with eBay seal of approval?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/avantcore.de\/en\/werbung-mit-stiftung-warentest-urteil-gut-genug\/\">Advertising with Stiftung Warentest verdict \"good\" enough?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Das Oberlandesgericht (OLG) M\u00fcnchen hat mit Urteil vom 22.05.2025 \u2013 29 U 867\/23 e entschieden, dass die FOCUS-\u00c4rztesiegel \u201eTOP-Mediziner\u201c und \u201eFOCUS-Empfehlung\u201c, die das Magazin \u201eFOCUS GESUNDHEIT\u201c gegen Lizenzgeb\u00fchren an ausgew\u00e4hlte \u00c4rzte vergibt, keine unzul\u00e4ssige, irref\u00fchrende Werbung im Sinne des Gesetzes gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb (UWG) darstellen.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":27486,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-custom-blog.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3049],"tags":[3349,942,3345,3348,3346,3087,3347,411,1039],"ppma_author":[3075],"class_list":["post-27593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allgemein","tag-aerzteranking","tag-bewertung","tag-focus-aerztesiegel","tag-focus-empfehlung","tag-olg-muenchen","tag-siegel","tag-top-mediziner","tag-werbung","tag-wettbewerbsrecht"],"authors":[{"term_id":3075,"user_id":15,"is_guest":0,"slug":null,"display_name":"Dr. Matthias Hesshaus","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d5fedb90db22e1597e6f35126e51f94c849e32ae807e0e08611955aa0d02f34a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","first_name":"Dr. Matthias","last_name":"Hesshaus","user_url":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/avantcore.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/avantcore.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/avantcore.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avantcore.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avantcore.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/avantcore.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avantcore.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/avantcore.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avantcore.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avantcore.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27593"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avantcore.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=27593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}