In the dispute over waste costs, the shoe company Deichmann is facing a court defeat. The Gelsenkirchen administrative court announced a preliminary legal opinion on Friday, according to which Deichmann is not exempt from a so-called system participation obligation. With this system, companies have to pay money for the disposal and recycling of packaging that ends up with private end customers. This is monitored by the Central Packaging Register Office (ZSVR). Deichmann had filed a lawsuit against this Osnabrück authority.
At the hearing on Friday, Kurt Student from the Society for Packaging Market Research presented a report according to which around 62 percent of shoe buyers in Germany now take the shoe box with them from the store or have it sent to them after ordering online. That was around eight percentage points more than in 2020. If it had been less than 50 percent, Deichmann would probably have been exempt from the obligation to pay for waste.
“That sounds like a verdict”
Deichmann lawyer Claudia Schoppen was disappointed with the court’s preliminary assessment. “That sounds like a judgment call.” The report is not meaningful and not representative. The market researchers visited too few stores. The report is originally from 2020, when representatives of the Society for Packaging Market Research visited 46 company locations. She also obtained additional market data.
At the court’s request, the company updated its report this year and visited 20 other stores, five of which were Deichmann. Attorney Schoppen referred to research by Deichmann itself, according to which 60 percent of customers leave their shoeboxes behind. The judge said that this company survey played no role in the verdict. From his point of view, the disputed report is quite meaningful and valid. After the preliminary assessment in the afternoon, the court chamber withdrew to deliberate. The verdict should be announced on Friday.