In a reference order dated 24 July 2013, ref. no.: 31 a C 109/13, the District Court of Hamburg informed the parties to the dispute that in the case of P2P copyright infringements (file sharing) in the private sphere it only considered warning costs in the amount of € 130.50 to be justified.
The District Court stated that in a "normal" file sharing case (P2P copyright infringement) by a consumer in the private sphere, it only considers an amount in dispute of 1000.00 € to be appropriate. The lawyer's settlement may therefore only be based on an amount in dispute of 1000.00 €.
Based on this amount in dispute, only justified warning costs in the amount of € 130.50 (RVG 2007') and € 124.00 (RVG 2013) result.
It now remains to be seen whether other courts will follow the legal opinion of the Hamburg District Court.
In particular, it must be taken into account here that the Hamburg District Court expressly referred to the law passed on 28 June 2013 "amending the Copyright Act" (BT-Drucksache 17/13057) as grounds for its legal opinion. However, this law is not applicable law. It is only a draft law. Although the law has already been passed in the Bundestag, the Bundesrat still has to approve and confirm the law. It is therefore not certain, especially in view of the upcoming Bundestag elections, that this law will become applicable law at all.
Goldberg Attorneys at Law 2013
Attorney at Law Michael Ullrich, LL.M. (Information Law)
Specialist lawyer for information technology law
E-mail: info@goldberg.de
