Stephan Merz believes Germany is suffering from politicians’ double standards during this recession.

The financial press in Germany is full of articles on struggling companies – for example, model railway manufacturer Märklin, underwear producer Schiesser, the Schaeffler group being under financial pressure since their takeover of publicly-listed giant Continental AG, car manufacturer Opel – currently in the doldrums because of the serious trouble of US parent company General Motors and last, but not least, the various players in the financial industry.

What do these companies have in common? All are popular, well-known firms, some are asking for and some are already partially receiving government aid of many billions of euros financed by taxes.
On the other hand, there is a subject which remains almost unreported across all media, although it could have a major impact on many German businesses.

As reported here some months ago, the upcoming amendments to the existing German data protection law (‘Bundesdatenschutzgesetz’ – BDSG) would have a severe negative effect on the German economy. A huge number of jobs are in danger – estimates vary between 40,000 at the low end and in the short term, to more than 300,000 in medium-term. This could be caused by the proposal of the German Government to abolish the so-called ‘list privilege’. This currently allows data owners to transfer lists with specific information on a group of persons for marketing purposes without the consent of the individuals concerned, providing this information is limited to name, address, profession, academic title, age and a category (eg mail order buyer).

The German parliament would have a chance to support small and medium-sized businesses across all industries by maintaining the ‘list privilege’. And this has a very significant upside: not even a cent of the tax-financed economic recovery plan would be needed. But our politicians are on the way to overlooking the opportunity for this ‘zero euro economic recovery plan’. Tens of thousands of small and medium-sized companies would profit from it – not just a few selected well-known major players. But as always, the lobby of smaller companies and the direct marketing industry appears weak. Our politicians act only when a major player is in danger; when a small business collapses, it is only the bailiff who rings the bell.

Although the ‘Bundesrat’ opted for an even stricter law in some points, there is still a chance to convince enough members of our Parliament. If no decision is taken by the end of June – the last week of sessions by the 16th German Parliament – the legislative procedure could forfeit, since there will be new elections to the Bundestag in September!

Some members of the direct marketing industry are actively trying to avoid a worst case scenario and there is a ray of hope: The German DMA has told the EU vice-president of a discrepancy between the draft new German data protection act and the existing EU directive, focusing on the balance of interest between consumers and businesses. I will keep you posted on developments.