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MONEY

How German ministers want to protect online ticket purchases

Once a year, consumer rights ministers from Germany's federal and state governments gather for a joint conference. This year, improving online ticket sales and better data protection measures are on the agenda.

Published: 12 June 2024 11:14 CEST
The Eventim office in Bremen
The Eventim office in Bremen. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Sina Schuldt

North Rhine-Westphalia’s consumer protection minister Silke Gorißen (CDU) will present proposals for further consumer protections for online ticket sales at the consumer ministers conference (VMK) on Thursday and Friday. 

Gorißen is pushing to make online ticket sales more transparent and give consumers more rights to back out of purchases if they don’t have enough information. 

Under the proposals, consumers would receive more information before purchasing tickets, such as details on the number of tickets sold by each provider and the prices for different seat categories.

Currently, ticket prices are often only visible during the purchasing process. 

The ministers will also consider whether consumers should be granted a right of withdrawal when buying tickets online. 

READ ALSO: How Germany is making it easier for consumers to cancel contracts

“The process of buying tickets is becoming increasingly complex and confusing, often limited to very narrow time windows,” Gorißen told DPA ahead of the conference. “I expect providers to act more in the interest of consumers. The market power of large ticket portals should not result in unclear and non-transparent sales.”

More data protection online

According to DPA, Gorißen also wants users of telecomms services to be better protected when it comes to their personal data. 

NRW’s consumer minister believes providers of emails, chats, or telecommunications services should be required to put measures in place to detect malware that’s designed to steal personal information from users. This should be done at the EU level, Gorißen said. 

Moreover, Gorißen says there should be more information on online safety made available through a consumer hotline. 

“IT security responsibility should not solely depend on the digital competence of users,” the CDU culture minister explained. “Protection against cyberattacks must become a societal responsibility.”

READ ALSO: The German mobile companies with the best – and worst – coverage

The proposals are set to be voted on by consumer ministers on Friday. 

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CRIME

German far-right politician back in court over Nazi slogan

Controversial German far-right politician Björn Höcke went on trial Monday over a banned Nazi slogan that has already earned him a conviction.

Published: 24 June 2024 11:15 CEST
German far-right politician back in court over Nazi slogan

Höcke, a member of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), was fined €13,000 in May for knowingly using the phrase “Alles für Deutschland” (Everything for Germany) at a 2021 campaign rally.

A motto of the Sturmabteilung paramilitary group that played a key role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, the phrase is illegal in Germany, along with the Nazi salute and other slogans and symbols from that era.

Höcke, a former high school history teacher, claimed he was unaware of the slogan’s Nazi past but judges in Halle agreed with prosecutors that he fully understood what he was saying.

The same court will now have to decide whether Höcke, the leader of the AfD in the eastern region of Thuringia, is guilty of knowingly using the slogan a second time at a party gathering in his home state in December 2023.

Höcke had called out the phrase “everything for” and allegedly incited the crowd to reply “Germany”.

If convicted, he could face a fine or up to three years in jail, according to German media. A verdict could come as early as this week.

Considered an extremist by German intelligence services, Hoecke has long courted controversy.

He once called Berlin’s Holocaust monument a “memorial of shame” and has urged a “180-degree shift” in the country’s culture of remembrance.

But the scandals haven’t dented his popularity, and Hoecke is gunning to become Germany’s first far-right state premier when Thuringia holds regional elections in September.

READ ALSO: Germany’s far-right AfD sees strong gains in local eastern elections

The anti-Islam, anti-immigration AfD is currently polling in first place in Thuringia. The party is also expected to perform strongly in two other regional elections in eastern Germany in September.

But in a country where coalition governments are the norm, Germany’s mainstream parties have consistently ruled out cooperating with the AfD.

The AfD scored a record 16 percent in the European Parliament elections earlier this month, outperforming Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party.

READ ALSO: What the EU elections say about the state of politics in Germany

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