Germany: The obligation to provide consumers with an online cancellation button – update on recent rulings

Published

Apr 24 2025

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5 minutes

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As a member of our Commercial Practice Group, focusing on IT & Data Protection, I work as an associate in our team in Munich.

Judgement	Key Take Away
Higher Regional Court Hamburg, 26 September 2024 - Case No. 5 UKI 1/23	Labelling the cancellation button with "Submit Cancellation Intention" ("Kündigungsabsicht abschicken") is insufficient. The button must be labelled with the statutory wording "Terminate Now" ("Jetzt kündigen") or an equally clear and unambiguous phrase. The chosen wording must convey the immediate effect of termination, ensuring consumers understand that clicking the button will directly result in contract cancellation.
Higher Regional Court Hamburg, 26 September 2024 - Case No. 5 UKI 1/23	The obligation to implement an online cancellation button applies irrespective of whether the relevant website is operated by the business that is the consumer’s contracting party or by a third party.
Regional Court Hildesheim, 9 January 2024 – Case No. 3 O 109/23	Resellers who offer subscriptions on behalf of third parties must ensure that a cancellation button is present on the third party’s website as well, not just their own. Resellers are accountable for ensuring compliance with this requirement, effectively treating the provider's website as an extension of their own sales platform.
Higher Regional Court Cologne, 10 January 2025 - Case No. 6 U 62/24	A mandatory login before enabling access to the cancellation button violates Section 312k BGB. The cancellation button must be permanently visible from the beginning of the cancellation process and immediately accessible without requiring consumers to input credentials.
Higher Regional Court Nürnberg, 30 July 2024 - Case No. 3 U 2214/23	The cancellation button must be accessible without a prior login, even if a customer account is generally required to use the service. Requiring a login imposes an unacceptable hurdle and contravenes the intention of the law to simplify cancellations.
Regional Court Munich I,10 October 2023 - Case No. 33 O 15098/22	A streaming service provided a cancellation button labelled “Cancel subscription” which led to a subpage where consumers were asked to log in to an existing customer account by entering their email address and password or PIN. The cancellation button did not lead directly to a cancellation confirmation page as required, nor was it directly and easily accessible, thus violating § 312k BGB.
Higher Regional Court Düsseldorf, 23 May 2024 – Case No. I- 20 U 3/23	A business provided a cancellation button that did not lead the consumer to the cancellation confirmation page, but to a different webpage which required a login. The court found this design to be constituting an impermissible ‘split’ of the second stage (confirmation page). This was deemed a complication that deviated from the law and represented an additional stage that was not provided for by law.
Regional Court Munich I, 16 November 2023 - Case No. 12 O 4127/23	A business placed a grey and small cancellation button on the homepage at the bottom of the website, behind a button labelled “show more links”. This was not meeting the legal requirements for a direct and easily accessible placement of the cancellation button. Furthermore, if the button used to conclude the contract is blue and recognizable, the cancellation button cannot be smaller and grey.
Higher Regional Court Hamburg, 22 August 2024 - Case No. 6 U 1/23	If a consumer enters a contract involving only a one-time payment without ongoing obligations (e.g., a yearly subscription paid upfront with no automatic renewal), the business is not required to provide an online cancellation button. The consumer is not at risk of falling into a "cost trap," and thus, the additional protection intended by the statute is unnecessary in such cases. The obligation to provide a cancellation button applies primarily to contracts with continuous payment obligations from the consumer.
Regional Court Berlin II, 27 November 2024 - Case No. 97 O 81/23	On the confirmation page, a business required its customers to provide their password as an identifier for the termination (i.e. this was no login request, but a password request). The court found this additional information request on the cancellation confirmation page to be acceptable since it solely served for the clear identification of the consumer and did not redirect them to a login or customer account area. This practice does not constitute an inadmissible hurdle under §312k BGB.

As a reminder, the new law actually requires two "buttons", which - according to the German legislator's preamble - are "any graphical control elements that allow the user to initiate an action or provide feedback to the system". A 3D button or a clickable hyperlink can be such a graphical element.

The first "button" should be placed on the footer of the landing page of the website and could look like this hyperlink:

Clicking on this hyperlink should take the consumer to the mandatory confirmation page where the consumer can provide identifying information. The confirmation page must include the actual cancellation button, which allows the consumer to submit the actual unsubscribe notice. This button could look like this:

Cancellation button still often inadequately implemented in Germany

Failure to comply with these rules can lead to cease-and-desist letters or injunctions from consumer protection associations, or competitors. In addition, German law grants consumers the statutory right to immediately terminate a subscription without notice if the cancellation procedure is not implemented in accordance with German law.

Businesses offering online subscriptions are therefore well advised to check whether these requirements apply to their service and, if so, to implement a compliant online cancellation button on their website. German consumer watchdogs are closely monitoring the implementation of the requirement in the market. A study published by the Federal Association of Consumer Protection, (Verbraucherschutzzentrale Bundesverband, "vzbv"), in June 2023 shows that the majority of online providers of paid subscriptions did not or not adequately implement the requirement for the cancellation button. Only 42 percent of ca. 3,000 websites met the legal requirements.

Germany: The obligation to provide consumers with an online cancellation button – update on recent rulings

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Cancellation button still often inadequately implemented in Germany

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