“Abmahnung”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

An Abmahnung (German term for a written warning) is a formal request by one person to another person to forthwith stop a certain behaviour.

If this formal request is made by an attorney, then it is similar to a cease-and-desist letter (but not a cease-and-desist order, which in turn is similar to a {{Interlanguage link multi|einstweilige Verfügung|de}} in German law). It is used much more between private parties than a consent decree is in the United States,{{Relevance inline|date=May 2011}} since German law permits a wide range of parties to file suit to bring an end to an observed wrong done to a third party,^[1] whereas in the United States the requirements for a party's standing to sue are more restrictive (i.e. only the wronged party can sue).{{Citation needed|date=October 2012}}

In most cases, the law allows the party sending the letter to demand payment of legal costs associated with the sending of the letter. In theory, this allows anybody that observes a violation of a law that may be covered by an {{Lang|de|Abmahnung}} to hire an attorney, have a letter sent, and be reimbursed for the attorney's fees. In practice, a lawyer may do this without having been hired by a client who has been wronged,{{disputed inline|date=July 2014}} in essence searching for violators of covered laws and demanding payment from them for having found them. Since the enormous proliferation of web sites, this abuse of the law has led to the so-called {{Lang|de|Abmahnwelle}} (-wave), as lawyers and copyright holders are trawling the internet searching for even minor and usually unintended violations of e.g. copyright law, with some law firms sending thousands of letters per year demanding payment.^[2]

References

1. ^§ 8 of the {{Interlanguage link multi|Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb|de}} (UWG) (Competition law) {{De icon}}; {{Lang|de|Geschäftsführung ohne Auftrag}} (acting without instruction) {{De icon}}, Negotiorum gestio
2. ^{{cite journal |last=Solmecke |first=Christian |last2=Dierking |first2=Laura |year=2009 |month= |title=Die Rechtsmissbräuchlichkeit von Abmahnungen |journal=Multimedia und Recht |volume=11 |pages=727ff |language=German |accessdate=October 6, 2012 |url=http://www.wbs-law.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/die-rechtsmissbrauchlichkeit-von-abmahnungen-mmr-2009-heft-11-seite-727.pdf}}