Unfair Customer Solicitation

Every entrepreneur is keen to retain their customer base while also acquiring new clients. Not only in large companies, but especially in smaller, locally based businesses (for example retail shops), customer attrition can lead to severe drops in turnover and, in the worst case, to bankruptcy. Companies do not always act honourably when acquiring customers, but sometimes knowingly damage one or more competitors.

If one of your rivals is acting illegally and damaging your business in the competitive marketplace, the corporate investigators of Kurtz Detective Agency Münster will help you put a stop to such conduct: +49 251 7009 0014.

Did you know your business was supposedly closed? A case from North Rhine-Westphalia (2015).

Drop in Turnover in a Small Business

A long-standing regular customer enters a small specialist grocery shop on the edge of a large city and greets the owner with the words, “So your shop is still open after all!” The owner is visibly confused and asks for further details, whereupon the customer tells him that, while shopping in the city centre during Advent 2014, the owner of a competing business had informed her that this outskirts shop had closed. When she asked why the shop had closed, he allegedly said that vermin had been found in the food and storerooms and that customers had been cheated when the goods were weighed, causing the clientele to desert the shop. He, by contrast, claimed to offer only the very best quality and to weigh food correctly. The customer was horrified, but ultimately believed him and subsequently bought from him.

Customer Refuses to Provide a Written Statement

The owner of the small outskirts shop now understands why his turnover has declined in recent months. He decides to involve his lawyer and asks the regular customer to confirm her statement in writing so that he has a legal footing against the competitor. The customer refuses, however, because she does not want to be involved in legal disputes. The injured party must therefore look for alternative means of proof.

Instruction of Kurtz Detective Agency Münster

Seeking help, the owner turns to the corporate investigators of Kurtz Detective Agency Münster and commissions them to gather the evidence. Our investigators enter the competitor’s shop under a pretext as apparent customers of the retail business and hear the same statements from the competitor’s owner that the customer had reported. Thus our Münster investigators can document the unfair poaching of customers and hand over court-admissible evidence to our client in the form of multiple written and, if required, oral witness statements.

Pretence of False Facts – The Imagination Knows No Bounds

Not only the spreading of lies, but also, for example, exaggeration of one’s own abilities or goods, promises of concessions (for example discounts, gifts and the like) after purchase or contract conclusion, misleading statements about one’s own offer and the bribing of customers are means of unfair competition that businesses increasingly face. Often you as an entrepreneur do not even know what the competitor is saying about you and your company and are puzzled by falling revenues. In such cases you should contact our corporate investigators in Münster so that you can effectively defend yourself. Our detectives will be pleased to advise you in a no-obligation consultation on +49 251 7009 0014.