If securities are also offered to investors in Germany via the Internet, these offers are also subject to the provisions of the German Sales Prospectus Act (Verkaufsprospektgesetz) in addition to the provisions of the German Ordinance on Information Duties (Informationspflichten-Verordnung – BGB-InfoVO). This is to be assessed irrespective of the country in which the server is located. An offer to investors in Germany is deemed to have been made if it is made in German or if German contact persons are named. The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) monitors Internet offers, including those that are concealed: ostensibly, only information about securities is offered. – The same applies to the targeted offering of banking services. The supervisory authority assesses such offers as operating the banking business in Germany; it is therefore regarded as requiring a license. Of course, the supervisory authorities have so far been quite powerless against – even obviously fraudulent – offers from offshore financial centers. – Internet offers are also accompanied by reports from allegedly enthusiastic investors in specially created Internet forums and blogs. Here certain papers, mostly nonvaleurs, are recommended for purchase. The forum operators can hardly be identified by clever address spoofing. – See rip-off, supervision, indirect, cold calling, daimonion, darkrooming, domicile concealment, financial forums, financial vultures, over-the-counter, frontrunning, secret tip, foundation fraud, high-risk countries, identity theft, information overload, Information overload, Internet brokerage, Internet forums, Capital market, Gray, Plain text, Credit brokerage platform, Makeup, Parallel banking, Avenging angels, Shadow banking, Spam mails, Understandability, Advertising restrictions, Angle brokers, Interest rate, Double-digit. – Cf. BaFin Annual Report 2003, p. 73 f., BaFin Annual Report 2007, p. 156 (BaFin takes action against Internet offers without prospectuses), BaFin Annual Report 2008, p. 156 (spam mails decline), BaFin Annual Report 2009, p. 196 f. (BaFin searches the Internet for offers that are not permitted), and the respective BaFin Annual Report, chapter “Supervision of securities trading and investment business.”
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University Professor Dr. Gerhard Merk, Dipl.rer.pol., Dipl.rer.oec.
Professor Dr. Eckehard Krah, Dipl.rer.pol.
E-mail address: info@ekrah.com
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