Imprint (Impressum) requirements for German websites in 2026
Germany, Austria, and Switzerland require an Impressum on every commercial website. Here is the legal basis, the field-by-field checklist, and the common failures that trigger Abmahnung letters.
Among compliance failures, missing Impressums are unique: they are easy to spot, easy to enforce, and have a built-in private-enforcement mechanism in the form of the Abmahnung — a cease-and-desist letter from a competitor or specialised law firm. For SMBs operating in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland (DACH), the Impressum is the lowest-effort, highest-impact compliance fix on the list.
The legal basis
Germany. Until May 2024 the rule sat in §5 of the Telemediengesetz (TMG). It now lives in §5 of the Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz (DDG), the German implementation of the EU Digital Services Act. The substance is unchanged — same fields, same enforcement.
Austria. §24 and §25 of the Mediengesetz (MedienG) require disclosures on any “periodical electronic medium,” which courts have read broadly to cover commercial websites. The required fields differ slightly from Germany’s.
Switzerland. Less prescriptive: Art. 322 StGB requires identification for media services, and FINMA-regulated services have specific disclosure rules. Practical advice: a German-style Impressum satisfies Swiss customers and authorities without dedicated effort.
The German field-by-field checklist
§5 DDG requires the following information, presented leicht erkennbar, unmittelbar erreichbar und ständig verfügbar (easily recognisable, directly accessible, and continuously available):
- Full company name and legal form (GmbH, UG, AG, e.K., GbR, sole proprietorship, etc.).
- Authorised representative for legal entities (Geschäftsführer, Vorstand).
- Postal address — actual street address, not a P.O. box. This is the one that catches one-person businesses out: a home address is required if there is no business premises.
- Contact details enabling rapid electronic communication and direct contact: an email address (not just a contact form) and telephone or equivalent real-time channel.
- Commercial register entry if applicable: registry court and HRA/HRB number.
- VAT identification number (USt-IdNr.) if the business has one.
- Regulated profession (where applicable): chamber, professional title, country of issuance, professional regulations and how to access them. Doctors, lawyers, tax advisors, architects, real-estate agents fall into this category.
- Online dispute resolution link (ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr) for B2C e-commerce sites.
- Statement on consumer ADR participation: whether the business participates in alternative dispute resolution and where.
- Editorial responsibility (V.i.S.d.P.) where the site contains journalistic-editorial content. A blog with named authors arguably qualifies; this is where most SMBs over-disclose to be safe.
What auditors check beyond the fields
Beyond the contents, an Impressum audit looks at:
- Link visibility. The Impressum link is in the footer of every page, labelled exactly “Impressum.” Not “Legal,” not “Imprint,” not buried inside a multi-page legal section.
- Number of clicks. Reachable in two clicks (one click is the standard interpretation). Hiding the Impressum behind a nav menu accordion is risky.
- Markup. The link is a real
<a>tag, indexable by crawlers — not a JavaScript-only modal that bots cannot follow. - Consistency with the privacy policy. The controller named in the Impressum is the same as in the privacy policy.
- Mobile presentation. The Impressum is just as accessible on small viewports as on desktop.
Common failures we see
P.O. boxes instead of street addresses. Common for digital freelancers; also non-compliant. The DDG requires a deliverable street address.
Contact form instead of email address. Courts have repeatedly held that a contact form alone does not satisfy the “rapid electronic communication” requirement. An email address must be provided.
Missing telephone number. §5 requires direct contact details. Telephone is the default; a chat tool that responds in real time during business hours arguably qualifies, but the safer answer is to publish a number.
Missing ODR link. Required since 2016 for any B2C online seller. Still missing on most SMB e-commerce sites.
Missing VAT ID. If you have a USt-IdNr., it has to appear. Confusingly, some SMBs add a Steuernummer instead — that is a different identifier and does not satisfy the requirement.
The Abmahnung pattern
The economics of the Abmahnung are why this matters. A specialised law firm or a competitor pays a search engine to find pages without a compliant Impressum, sends a template letter demanding a signed cease-and-desist undertaking and reimbursement of legal fees, and collects. Average cost of a single Impressum-related Abmahnung: €500– €2,500. The cure is trivially cheap; the consequence of not curing it is real.
How Veracly audits Impressums
Veracly checks for an Impressum link on every page, validates that each required §5 DDG field is present, flags missing fields with the exact regulator citation, and re-checks weekly so a redesign that drops the footer link is caught the day it ships. Run a scan.
See also: What is a website compliance audit? · What is a GDPR cookie audit?
Common questions
Does my website need an Impressum?
If your site is reachable in Germany and provides any commercial content — including a one-person freelance landing page or a free product hosted by a business — yes. The legal basis is the Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz (DDG, replacing the TMG since May 2024), §5. Austria has a parallel obligation under §25 MedienG, Switzerland under Art. 322 StGB for media-equivalent services.
Where does the Impressum link belong?
In the footer of every page, with the link text "Impressum" — not abbreviated, not buried in a settings menu. The link must be reachable in two clicks from any page on the site. A footer link visible on every page meets this; a link only inside a sub-menu does not.
What is an Abmahnung?
A formal cease-and-desist letter from a competitor or consumer-protection lawyer, demanding payment of legal fees and a signed undertaking. Missing or incomplete Impressums are the textbook Abmahnung target — fees typically €500–€2,500, larger if you ignore the letter.
Does an Impressum apply if I run an English-only site from outside Germany?
If the site is accessible in Germany and targets German users (German-language content, EUR pricing, .de domain, advertising in DE), German consumer-protection courts will apply the DDG regardless of where the company is based. Pure English sites with no DE targeting are usually fine.
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