Impressum: What is it and when do you need one (example)

An Impressum is essentially a statement of ownership and authorship. It was put into place to in an effort to protect user data, combat illegal content and spam by making website owners identify themselves, and as a result assume responsibility for the content on their platform.

Often when talking about an Impressum, people mean the German (DACH) version of compulsory information placed on a website.

The Impressum is legally required on all commercial websites (including Facebook business pages) published in German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), whether the website is published via a .de top-level domain or not.

The point can be made that if you simply have a personal blog without ads and make no money from it, then the Impressum is not required.

Another document that’s often mandatory for commercial sites is Terms and Conditions. Read more about Terms and when they’re needed here.

Generally, an Impressum should contain the following information:

• Name of the website owner (a business name is usually used here)
• Registered address (please note that a PO Box – Postfach – is not considered to be a valid registered address as the owners can not typically be found there)
• Valid contact information – phone number, fax or email address
• If an activity needs official authorization, information about the supervising authority
• Name of the individual legal representative (typically the owner of the website or the person managing the site)
• VAT number or other equivalent state-issued number
• Any additional trade registry or license numbers
• In the case of legal entities, the legal form and, if information is provided on the company’s capital, the registered/share capital and, if not all contributions to be paid in cash have been paid, the total amount of outstanding contributions

Note: In the case of Germany, the Impressum is regulated inside Art. 5 DDG.

An Impressum should be:

• always available
• easily recognizable (call it “Impressum”)
• immediately accessible