fakeshop-finder.de at Consumer Day 2025
Today's German Consumer Day in Berlin focused on the future of online retail. Under the motto “Shopping 4.0 – Who pays the price?”, experts from politics, science, and society discussed the challenges of digitalization for consumers. The debate centered on manipulative designs, fake shops, and the role of large advertising platforms.
Fake shops and advertising platforms in the spotlight
A recent study by the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv) shows that every second fake shop advertises on Google or Meta. This allows fraudsters to reach millions of users and lull them into a false sense of security. Nearly one in eight online shoppers has fallen victim to a fake shop in the past two years – and the trend is rising. Consumer centers recorded over 165,000 complaints in the first half of 2025 alone, an increase of 14 percent over the previous year.
Technical solutions and political demands
As a countermeasure, the Consumer Advice Center of North Rhine-Westphalia, a project partner of mindUp Web + Intelligence GmbH, presented the portal fakeshop-finder.de. Joachim Feist, managing director of mindUp Web + Intelligence GmbH, was on site and emphasized: “It is very gratifying that the demonstration and explanations of fakeshop-finder.de took up a large part of the discussions.” The majority of panel participants indicated that technical solutions such as the Fakeshop Finder could be even more effective if the major advertising platforms also took stronger action against fraudsters.
Consumers feel unprotected
The vzbv's 2025 Consumer Report reveals that 65 percent of respondents do not feel well protected against misleading advertising or hidden costs, and 60 percent do not feel adequately protected against fraud or dubious providers. The discussions at Consumer Day made it clear that greater transparency, stricter controls, and greater responsibility on the part of platforms are needed to protect consumers in digital commerce.
Conclusion:
Consumer Day 2025 showed that the digitalization of retail not only brings opportunities, but also significant risks for consumers. Technical tools such as fakeshop-finder.de are an important step—but in order to further strengthen protection, the cooperation of large tech companies is needed.
