“Cash Bonanza” Clarification; Full Judgement Available

The full judgement in the recent German subscription trap case, including all pages and screenshots (but with the names of the defendants redacted) is now available (20MB+ PDF).

Some online speculators have suggested that Mozilla is bound to collect a large stash of cash from our victory in this case. This is not true, for the following excellent reasons:

  • We’re not even certain there is any large stash of cash, or if there is one, that it is still within the jurisdiction of the German court.
  • All the judgement did was to stop the infringing activity (which was our main aim). And it hasn’t even done that yet, because it is still appealable for up to 30 days. And if they appeal, they could do so on the last of those days.
  • We cannot obtain any money on the basis of the current judgement, but have to bring a second suit quantifying the damages, based on information that the judge in this suit ordered them to reveal.
  • Even if we bring such a suit, there is no certainty of compensation, or even of recovery of our costs.
  • Even if compensation is awarded, there are various ways the defendant could make themselves judgement-proof or avoid paying it.

So we are a long way from seeing a single penny, let alone larger amounts.

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