On 9 April 2025, the German Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) who won the election on 23 February 2025, and their coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD), presented the coalition agreement for their work together in the 21st legislative period. There has been a great deal of discussion on all sides about the contents, particularly with regard to climate protection and digitization. The following is a summary of what the agreement contains regarding intellectual property rights and consumer protection.
Intellectual property
Firstly, intellectual property is mentioned here and there in the coalition agreement, but is more of a marginal issue. One exception is the protection of copyright, which is mentioned primarily in connection with the development and use of artificial intelligence, and remuneration models in the digital music market.
Freedom of Innovation Act: National IP strategy
In the large section “Education, research, innovation” (from line 2300), the coalition announces a Freedom of Innovation Act (lines 2564 et seq.). Research will be given more freedom and “unleashed from small-scale funding bureaucracy”, and the coalition parties also want to facilitate the use of data. In this context, they announce: “We are presenting a national IP strategy (intellectual property).” (line 2573).
Strengthening copyright through appropriate remuneration
Copyright is explicitly mentioned in the section entitled “Law” (from line 2824): The parties want to ensure a “fair balance between the interests of all operators” (creators, industry and users). According to the coalition agreement, authors must be appropriately remunerated for the use of their works in the development of generative AI. Later on, in the section entitled “Culture and Media” (lines 3795 et seq.), the protection of copyright is emphasized: Together with the federal states, the coalition parties want to develop a “Culture & AI” strategy so that copyright is protected, and artificially generated content remains recognizable (lines 3846 et seq.).
Streaming platforms in the digital music market should be required to “give creatives an appropriate share of the revenue”. Transparency and traceability in the use of creative content should be increased and, to this end, an indispensable right to a proper billing audit should be introduced (lines 2829 et seq.).
Development of fair and transparent remuneration models
The “Culture and media” section also deals with fair remuneration models in the digital music market. The coalition partners affirm: “We will consistently enforce intellectual property rights and protect creative products.” (line 3902).
Consumer protection
The parties have devoted more attention to the protection of consumer rights. In the comprehensive section on “Law” (from line 2761), under the heading “Consumer protection”, “they state: “We are committed at European level to consumer interests in the digital space and, in particular, to closing gaps in consumer protection law.” According to the coalition agreement, the aim is to ensure that digital services are designed to be consumer-friendly “by design” and “by default” (lines 2800 et seq.).
Strengthening consumer rights
In the first major section of the agreement entitled “Rural Areas, Agriculture, Food and the Environment”, where one would not necessarily expect to find it, the heading “Consumers” begins with a very general statement: “Consumers should be able to make their own decisions. We support them with strong rights, transparency and information, advice and education, protection and prevention” (lines 1286 et seq.).
More transparency regarding hidden price increases
The coalition then becomes somewhat more specific a few lines further on: It intends to advocate for greater transparency in hidden price increases (lines 1295 et seq.) – currently a major topic in case law on the German Price Indication Regulation (Preisangabenverordnung PAngV). It remains to be seen whether this declaration of intent will lead to a further tightening of the legal provisions of the Price Indication Regulation, which has been in force since May 2022.
Prohibition of dark patterns
According to the section on digitalization (starting at line 2138), Germany will become a leading location for future technologies (line 2256). Relevant from a consumer perspective: The coalition partners want to consistently enforce EU platform laws and work to ban unfair business practices such as dark patterns and addictive designs (lines 2291 et seq.).
Compensation via automated solution (smart contracts)
One project that is sure to please consumers can be found in the “Law” section under the heading “Smart Contracts”: It should be possible to claim compensation or compensation payments digitally using forms that are largely pre-filled, “If the relevant data is already available to the provider due to booking via an app or online” (lines 2776 et seq.).
Regulation of the secondary ticket market
After this issue has been repeatedly discussed recently, the coalition wants to regulate the so-called secondary ticket market for sporting and cultural events more strictly, “In order to protect consumers from excessive prices, a lack of transparency and fraudulent sales practices.” Price caps will be made possible, transparency established, and platforms obliged to maintain a reporting system (lines 2790 et seq.).
Confirmation procedure for continuing obligations initiated by telephone
This project also serves consumer protection in a very concrete way: According to the coalition parties, a general confirmation procedure will to be introduced for continuing obligations initiated by telephone (lines 2799 et seq.).
Modern Justice
The coalition’s plans under the heading “Modern Justice” (lines 2016 et seq.) are also worth mentioning:
- “We are consistently pursuing the digitalization of the justice system” (line 2024).
- Access to justice should be facilitated and an online procedure in civil justice should be introduced (lines 2032 et seq.).
- Procedural platforms will replace traditional files and enable digital evidence to be used (lines 2038 et seq.).
- The parties want to “significantly reduce” the duration of proceedings in general (line 2040).
- Judges should be given further options for structuring proceedings, for example through early procedural conferences or guidelines on the structure of the parties’ submissions (lines 2041 et seq.).
Commitment to “good legislation”
Ultimately, we can be pleased about the commitment to “good legislation.” In the section entitled “Reducing bureaucracy, modernizing the state and modernizing the justice system,” the coalition promises: “We will not make laws, ordinances or regulations that are not necessary” (line 1866). We eagerly await further developments.
Conclusion: Implementation is key!
While the coalition agreement devotes considerable attention to media and competition law, particularly in the context of digital platforms, AI and fair market conditions, intellectual property – except for copyright – is somewhat neglected: Trademark, design, trade secret or patent law are not explicitly mentioned anywhere.
It is also striking that, in the context of consumer protection, there is no mention whatsoever of sustainability advertising to protect against greenwashing, even though this is a hotly debated topic at both the German and European level. However, the silence of the coalition agreement on this issue may be precisely the reason for this: With the draft Green Claims Directive, an extremely controversial EU regulatory proposal is currently on the table, so the coalition partners may want to wait and see how things develop before taking further action.
Ultimately, experience from past coalition agreements also shows one thing: What is written down and what is ultimately implemented are two different things.
