On 11 March 2026 (I ZR 28/25), the Federal Court of Justice held that a business is liable for unfair competition infringements in automatically generated search ads where it outsources ad placement to the search engine and supplies the product data; in the case, the mandatory energy efficiency class was missing. Under Section 8(2) UWG, the business owner is liable for agents integrated into its business. That the ad is generated automatically makes no difference. The case was remanded.
The ruling extends to shopping feeds, price comparison sites, marketplace ads and AI-generated ads.
More: AI in advertising
