Cease-and-Desist Letters for German YouTubers?
On YouTube, some vapers review devices that have only just hit the Chinese market but haven’t yet made it into European vape shops. That’s simply because, under EU law, a “new” device can only be sold in Europe once it has been notified and the six-month waiting period has passed. And this is only about “notification” – not any sort of technical testing. Understandably, that’s frustrating for shops. Now a rumour is doing the rounds that German vape shops want to take action against YouTubers because these early reviews are supposedly damaging their business.
First things first: what exactly is a cease-and-desist letter? In Germany, warning letters like this have become a whole business model for lawyers. They send expensive cease-and-desist demands, complete with a written undertaking, to anyone and everyone. These letters go out over photos, allegedly illegally uploaded videos or, if the rumour is to be believed, from vape shops to reviewers of vape gear.
For starters, you should know that many cease-and-desist letters are simply fake! This kind of rip-off isn’t only pulled off by lawyers genuinely instructed by artists or the industry, but also by the same type of people who used to promise you an inheritance in Kenya. In Switzerland, you generally have far less to worry about with these letters anyway: you can’t just send expensive legal bills without genuine grounds. It has to be about something that would also be illegal in Switzerland. On top of that, the alleged wrongdoer has to be given a chance to fix their mistake first. Simply cashing in doesn’t work here.
Of course, you also can’t hit vapers on YouTube with a cease-and-desist letter just because they’re featuring a device that isn’t even available in the EU yet. That’s nonsense, plain and simple! It’s nonsense for another reason too: in reality, it doesn’t hurt business at all – quite the opposite, it’s free advertising. And the share of people who will order directly from China instead of waiting until their favourite shop stocks the device is likely to be tiny!
Let’s say 1,000 people watch a review of device X, and 50 percent of them are excited about it. Of that 50 percent, at most 10 percent will decide straight away to buy the device once it hits the shops. So exactly 50 people would buy it immediately, even if their colleagues and friends haven’t tried it yet. Of those, at most 10 percent will be willing to order from a Chinese online shop and put up with the whole customs hassle. Goods from China have to be cleared through customs in the EU. Exactly three people have never ordered from China before and have never had to collect goods from customs. They also haven’t waited for parcels from China before, and delivery times can vary wildly. On top of that, the navigation in some Chinese online shops simply takes some getting used to. Long story short: German YouTubers can relax. They’re more likely to drive interest in new devices than to make life difficult for shops. What makes life difficult for German shops is EU regulations, not YouTubers.
