Consumers in Germany are more and more buying food and cosmetics on the internet. The number of online purchases of consumer items such as kitchen utensils, toys, clothing, and tobacco products is permanently and rapidly increasing. Pet food and feed for farm animals is also increasingly bought on the internet.

German regulatory authorities are coping with this trend. The Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) has housed the Laenders’ common central unit for Control of internet trade in products covered by the Food and Feed Code and tobacco products, short name G@ZIELT, since July 2013. “Products covered by the LFGB” means foodstuffs, feeding stuffs, cosmetics and consumer goods. The central office, which is conducted on behalf of the federal Laender, has the advantage to better cope with internet trade, which naturally does not stop at a border. Double research work is avoided, resources are saved, and work processes can be shaped more efficiently from a central point. With their central G@ZIELT unit, Germany’s food control authorities have taken the lead world-wide in enforcing consumer protection in online food trade.

The BVL and the authorities of the federal Laender intend to create, in co-operation with four certification organisations, an internet marketplace providing product safety about as high as in the supermarket or at the baker’s at the corner.

Online food purchase

Shopping foodstuffs on the internet is a developing trend. Online traders of foodstuffs have to register with the food control authority of the district or town where they are resident and are then being controlled on the same risk-oriented basis as conventional retailers.

Orientation for consumers is provided by quality marks, for instance such provided by the D21 Intitiative, a network for promoting the digital society. A mark certifying D-21 Initiative quality standards can only be granted to internet traders who have registered with the local competent food control authority, and are thus being supervised. Traders who have a quality mark according to D21 Initiative’s quality criteria meet very high standards of creditworthiness, data safety, and consumer protection. The quality mark is a possibility to reliably identify trustworthy providers.

Here you find an overview of questions and answers about the duties of food business in online trade.

These are the four quality marks certifying compliance with the quality criteria of the D-21 Initiative:

• The “Trusted Shops” quality mark
• The “Internet Privacy Standards” quality mark
• The “EHI geprüfter (EHI-tested) Online Shop” quality mark
• The “S@fer Shopping” quality mark of the TÜV Süd Technical Inspection Service

What the G@ZIELT unit searches on the internet

When the G@ZIELT unit search the internet, they place the focus on identifying offers of potentially risky foodstuffs that might have adverse health effects on consumers, be labelled in a misleading manner, or traded by businesses which have not registered with local competent authorities.

Any findings are communicated to competent authorities either in the federal Laender, or in other EU member states or third countries, in order for them to take appropriate action. This may be that they order cancellation of the offer in question, or enforce proper registration of the online business.

In their web research, the central G@ZIELT unit also looks for online food traders who have failed to register with their competent authority. Online traders, too, are obliged to register with the Laender food control authorities. This is the only way for the government authorities to know that the traders exist and to subject them to the regular, risk-based controls. (You will find more information about risk-based food controls in the Federal Control Plan BÜP (“Bundesweiter Überwachungsplan”).

For the research, the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) regularly transmits automatically generated data about food traders on the internet to the G@ZIELT unit, as provided by § 38a of the Food and Feed Code. The data are passed on to the federal Laender, for them to check proper business registration. Food businesses operating on the internet but not yet known to the Laender authorities are so discovered and brought under the control of food authorities.

Annual reports

The G@ZIELT unit publishes annual reports, starting in 2014, when they examined online trade in fresh meat and fresh fish. This first internet search was aimed at testing whether cold chains would be maintained when the products are dispatched. And indeed, temperatures in a third of the test purchases were too high at the time they arrived at the consumer. The packaging sometimes did not meet hygienic requirements. The BVL advised consumers not to accept deliveries not properly cooled. Online traders of food were urgently demanded to check transport systems for fresh meat and fish.

You see the findings of the first – an all following reports, the latest being of 2017 – here in detail (in German only).

Online buying of feedstuffs

In analogy to the online search for food traders, the G@ZIELT unit wants to step up search for farm animals’ feed and pet food sold on the internet, because feed providers and businesses are also subject to registration duties or approval of certain activities. Also, there are requirements with regard to the composition and labelling of feed, in order to guarantee feed safety and improve market transparency. These requirements also apply to feed sales on the internet.

Here you find questions and answers about duties of online traders in feedstuff (in German only).

Online shopping of cosmetics, consumer items, and tobacco products

There is no duty of registration or approval for persons or businesses offering cosmetics or consumer items, such as kitchen utensils, toys, clothes, or various tobacco products on the internet. That means here, the central G@ZIELT unit can only search for products which are not in line with respective legal provisions or which may be harmful to consumers or be advertised in a misleading manner. But here, too, the BVL has the aim to develop plans for safe internet market places.

Here you find questions and answers about duties of online traders in cosmetic products (in German only)

What is the experience of food control authorities with online research?

Prior to the G@ZIELT unit, the BVL operated a pilot project entitled “Surveillance of online trade in foodstuffs“, together with ten federal Laender from January 2011 to June 2013. The pilot project corresponded to a concept worked out by the BVL, applied and optimised new procedures, identified loopholes in on-line food surveillance and made proposals for new legal acts. The BVL also established co-operation with other government authorities concerned with on-line surveillance, such as the Federal Criminal Police Office, Laender Criminal Police Offices, customs offices, the Central Office for Medical Products, and with government authorities of other EU member states. During the two and a half years the pilot project was in operation, the team reported more than 3,000 online food businesses and 1,200 offers by some 450 providers to the competent authorities.

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