idealo Guideline on the Notice Mechanism

Updated:

Individuals and entities may report content that they consider to be illegal in connection with the listing of offers for products or services on the idealo-price-comparison for flights (hereinafter idealo-price-comparison). This applies to all types of content provided by users and published on their behalf on our idealo-price-comparison-websites or our idealo-travel-apps (e.g. offers from providers).

Below, we explain how our notice mechanism works.

Please only use our notice mechanism to report illegal content. If you would only like to give us general feedback on your user experience, please use our feedback function, which you can access via the button at the edge of the page.

If you encounter problems with your booking, please contact the provider with whom you made the reservation directly.

If you have any other concerns in connection with the services we provide, please contact our customer support.

1. Illegal Content

Illegal content can refer to any information that is illegal as such under applicable law or because it refers to an illegal activity.

Possible examples of illegal content on idealo-price-comparison are:

  • Offers that infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties (e.g. the unauthorised use of copyrighted images)
  • Offers that contain false or misleading information

2. Notice Function

If you would like to report suspected illegal content on idealo-price-comparison, you can do so using our online notice form.

a) Website

You can access the notice form from all price comparison pages via the blue button at the edge of the page. Click on the button and select the option

Digital Services Act. You will then be guided through the notice form, where you can select the appropriate category of illegal content and add further detailed information. Simply follow the instructions on the screen. When completing the notice form, please make sure that your details are thorough and complete so that we can process your notice in the best possible way.

On the mobile websites, the button that leads to the notice form appears when scrolling into the footer area.

b) App

On the idealo-travel-apps, you can access the notice form from all price comparison pages via a labelled link at the bottom of the My idealo tab.

3. Notice Process and Notice Requirements

In order to process your notice properly and make a careful decision about the reported content, you will be asked during the notice process to describe the content in question as specifically as possible and to explain why you believe the content to be illegal.

In order to be able to process your notice in the best possible way, it is important that the notice is sufficiently precise and adequately substantiated.

The notice process comprises a total of 5 steps:

  1. Firstly, you must select a notice category. You can find out more about the individual notice categories in section 4 of this policy.
  2. In the next step, you will be asked to describe the content as specifically as possible and explain why you consider the content to be illegal. Please provide any information here that will allow us to determine whether the reported content is illegal. You also have the options of providing contextual information to support your notice, of entering further links (URLs) in the text field, of uploading documents/evidence and of natively taking and adding screenshots of the page in question.
  3. Even if you are generally provided the option of submitting notices anonymously, we ask you to disclose your identity once you have provided the substantiation of your notice in order to prevent abuse and to inform you of our decision regarding the reported content.
  4. In the case of a notice of suspected infringement of a third party's intellectual property rights, please let us know if you are the rights holder or authorised to act on their behalf. If applicable, the provision of contact details is mandatory.
  5. You can send your notice by clicking on the Report Violation button. By submitting the notice, you also confirm that you believe in good faith that the information and statements contained in the notice are correct and complete.

4. Notice Categories

When reporting content, you can choose from the following categories on the report form:

  • Infringement of third-party intellectual property rights (Please use this report category to report content that infringes copyrights, trademarks or other rights of third parties)
  • Incorrect, missing or misleading information (Please use this category if you have discovered incorrect, missing or misleading information in an offer. This could include, for example, incorrect offer descriptions).

If none of the categories apply to your report of suspected illegal content, you can select the Other category and provide additional information in the notice form.

5. Trusted Flaggers

Trusted flaggers are entities that have been recognised as such by the competent authorities. If you wish to submit a notice as a trusted flagger within your designated area of expertise, please ensure that you identify yourself accordingly when entering your contact information in the notice form and that the email address you provide matches the email address registered with the authorities. We will then prioritise your notice in accordance with the applicable statutory provisions.

6. What Happens After We Receive Your Report?

If you have entered your email address in the notice form, you will receive an automatic confirmation of receipt once we have received your notice.

Once a notice has been received, a ticket is automatically generated for processing by the responsible customer service team. Our customer service will first check whether the notice contains sufficient information with regard to the selected notice category to identify the reported content and to be able to adequately assess the illegality of the reported content.

If the notice contains sufficient information, we will verify whether we can substantiate your assessment and determine whether there has been a violation. We may forward your notice, and the information provided in it, to the user who submitted the reported content. Your identity - if provided in the notice form - will only be disclosed to this user if this is necessary to determine the illegality of the reported content, for example in cases of infringement of intellectual property rights.

If we conclude that the reported content is illegal, we will take appropriate measures to rectify the violation. This may include, for example, the removal or disabling of access to the reported content by idealo.

If we cannot clearly determine the illegality of the reported content, we will not take any further measures with regard to the reported content.

It can also happen that reported content is not or no longer available on idealo in the reported form at the time of our verification, so that we can no longer determine a violation. (e.g. because an offer has been deleted or updated independently of your notice in the meantime). In this case, we will not take any additional measures with regard to the reported content.

If you have provided your email address in the notice form, we will inform you of our decision regarding the reported content without undue delay. If you do not agree with our decision, you have six months to submit a complaint via our free internal complaint-handling system (ICHS). We also work with out-of-court dispute settlement bodies as part of our legal obligations to resolve any disputes in connection with the rejection of your notice.

For further information on our internal complaint-handling system and other available legal remedies, please contact us here.

Please note: If you have submitted your notice anonymously, you will not receive any communication about your notice, not even a final result.

7. Misuse of Our Notice Function

If you submit a notice via our notice mechanism or a complaint via our internal complaint-handling system, you must act in good faith and ensure that the information you provide is correct and complete.

If we find that individuals or entities frequently submit manifestly unfounded notices or complaints, we are required by law to suspend the processing of notices and complaints from these individuals and entities for a reasonable period of time after prior warning.

When deciding on the suspension and, if applicable, its duration, we take into account all facts and circumstances known to us. This includes in particular

  1. the absolute number of manifestly unfounded notices or complaints submitted within a certain period of time,

  2. their relative share of the total number of notices or complaints submitted during this period,

  3. the nature of the notices or complaints and the severity of the associated allegations, including their consequences for other users, and

  4. the intentions pursued by the user, if discernible.