Wednesday October 13, 2021
Profiles are not deleted
Doctors fail with lawsuit against Jameda
The Federal Court of Justice rejects the action brought by a couple of dentists who no longer want to appear on the rating portal: the website may continue to list all doctors. The BGH has not yet given any further reasons for its decision – but there are comparable judgments.
The doctor rating portal Jameda is allowed to list all doctors. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) rejected the injunctive relief of a couple of dentists with a judgment that has now been announced. The Karlsruhe judges have not yet given any further reasons. A periodontist and an oral surgeon from the Rhineland had complained. Both wanted to be deleted from the list of doctors at Jameda and to remain permanently deleted there.
With reference to the freedom of expression and the public interest in such portals, however, the BGH had already emphasized in previous cases that Jameda can in principle list all doctors. The prerequisite is therefore that the portal takes on a role as a “neutral information broker”. Jameda had reacted to this and in particular deleted advertisements from competing doctors on the profiles of non-paying “basic customers”. The same applies to a link to other doctors in the area that is only given for basic customers.
Jameda sees judgment as a success
The Cologne Higher Regional Court therefore decided in November 2019 that there was a right to deletion in 2018 because their profiles had been misused as a platform for advertising by competing doctors. However, the OLG had rejected the application by the couple of dentists to permanently refrain from re-entering the portal.
The BGH has now confirmed this in the result. The argument that basic customers would continue to be disadvantaged, for example because paying customers could upload a photo to their profile, was also unsuccessful in Karlsruhe. However, the BGH does not want to announce its reasons for this until later.
Jameda, by its own account the largest doctor rating portal in Germany, rated the judgment as a success. “We are pleased that the federal judges have again emphasized the socially desirable function of Jameda and thus recognize complete doctor lists as an important contribution to better medical care,” explained Managing Director Florian Weiß.