Civey advertised its offer misleadingly

A court ruled that four advertising claims made by the start-up were misleading and unfair.

The Berlin survey start-up Civey claimed in the past that it was "No. 1 in the field of digital opinion data," "market leader in the field of digital opinion data," "technology leader in the field of digital opinion data" and "more reliable than the competition." As the FAZ reports, however, the opinion institute Forsa did not like statements like these at all - and has now been proven right in court.

According to the media report, in a now final ruling by the Cologne Regional Court, the responsible chamber decided that all of these advertising claims were misleading and unfair. Civey is now no longer allowed to use them.

According to the court, the company was unable to sufficiently demonstrate that Civey was a leader. The statement that Civey was more reliable than its competitors was also untenable. The company was also unable to prove that Civey claimed to be a "technology leader".

Civey conducts online surveys for opinion and market research. Users see the results immediately. Various Internet sites can embed the surveys to attract participants. According to Civey, the results are calculated to be as representative as possible. However, some critics have repeatedly questioned whether this representativeness is given.

Editor's note: An initial version of the article stated that all of the start-up's advertising claims were misleading and unfair. This is not correct. The Cologne Regional Court only ruled on the four statements mentioned in the text. The editorial team apologizes for this misunderstanding.