Lawyer for Greenwashing Cease and Desist Letters: Costs + Procedure

If a cease and desist letter lands in your mailbox: in 2026, thousands of German SMEs will receive a greenwashing cease and desist letter for the first time. A cease and desist letter sets a deadline and typically requires a legally qualified response, which is why specialist legal representation is usually involved at this stage.

Specialist law firms — Experience in UWG (German Act Against Unfair Competition), advertising and trademark law, consumer protection law, EU compliance (SFDR, EU Taxonomy). Specialist lawyers can be found, for example, via lawyer search portals such as Anwalt.de with the filter "UWG/Advertising Law" or via the IHK (Chamber of Industry and Commerce).

Typical costs — Initial consultation 1-2 hours €200-400/h. Including assessment of the cease and desist letter. Modified cease and desist undertaking: lawyer’s fees €800-2,500. Contractual penalty in case of recurrence €5,000-25,000. Full defence (court proceedings): lawyer’s fees €3,500-15,000. Value in dispute typically €25,000-100,000. The prospects of a successful defence depend on the individual case.

Strategy options — Most common option: modified cease and desist undertaking, in which the amount of the contractual penalty is negotiated (the standard proposal is often too high). Option 2: Full defence via negative declaratory action, rarely successful. Option 3: No response, which leaves the deadline to expire and exposes the recipient to court proceedings.

Steps that carry legal risk: ignoring the cease and desist letter (deadlines!), signing a cease and desist undertaking without qualification, removing advertising immediately without legal assessment, or contacting the Verbraucherzentrale (German Consumer Advice Centre) directly.

Cost comparison: An Empcora audit for €49 checks marketing claims before publication, while legal costs and contractual penalties in a cease-and-desist case can reach the five-figure range.