Stars in the hotel coat of arms – hotel rating?

Is it unlawful competition for a hotel to advertise stars in a coat of arms if these do not provide any information about a neutral hotel rating? Not always, the Regional Court (LG) Freiburg ruled and dismissed the action for an injunction brought by the Competition Authority.

The Central Authority for Combating Unfair Competition asserted claims for an injunction on grounds of competition law against a hotel operator because the latter advertised its hotel with a star designation on the Internet. The four gold stars were depicted in an oval arrangement beneath the hotel's coat of arms.

The Competition Authority regarded this advertising as misleading because it would create a false impression in the average consumer that the stars in the coat of arms represented an official hotel classification of the German Hotel and Catering Association.

Decision of the court

The Regional Court (LG) Freiburg dismissed the Competition Authority's action for an injunction against the use of the stars withJudgment of 20.06.2016 (Az. 12 O 137/15 KfH)a rejection.

The Regional Court (LG) Freiburg did not recognise in the use of the coat of arms the application of a quality mark which would be awarded on the basis of objective assessment and which would be understood in trade as an indication of particular quality or merit.

The average informed and reasonably attentive consumer, who accords to advertising the degree of attention appropriate to the circumstances, would not understand the use of four stars as an indication of a hotel rating by a state or private body. The manner of the graphical presentation chosen, in particular in conjunction with the golden colour of the stars selected, was decisively against an understanding in trade that this constituted a reference to a neutral hotel rating, for example by the German Hotel and Catering Association. Rather, the graphical design fell within the playful realm of sympathetic advertising without the objective statement content assumed by the Competition Authority.

If the stars were not already part of the coat of arms from the perspective of trade, they would serve, by virtue of the manner of their arrangement and the colour chosen, to embellish the coat of arms, but not to convey any message about hotel qualification by a neutral third party.

Conclusion

The Regional Court (LG) Freiburg has decided that not every pictorial representation of stars in connection with hotel advertising would be understood by the public as a quality judgment of an independent body. In the case heard here, the consumer recognises that the stars depicted form part of the hotel's coat of arms.