this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2025
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This is a criminal offence (Insolvenzverschleppung).
This is unfortunate, but normal when a company is insolvent. By paying in advance you have become a creditor and have to get in line with all the other cretitors in the hope to get at least something back.
Yep, but someone would need to take them to court for that and prove that YT/Ardian knew about it. I guess it's very easy to say "we tried to save the company from insolvency with big sales" or some bullshit
IANAL tho, so idk
I doubt it's going to be that easy for the management to refute the allegations. Giving special offers doesn't generate more profit. It just artificially pushes the number of customers which may be beneficial when searching an investor. Otherwise it remains some kind of snow ball scheme.
However, somebody has to sue them first. The consumer protection offices (Verbraucherzentralen) are always somebody to ask for advice.
@Successful_Try543 @hemko I'm sure there is some language/legal jurisdiction differences, but isn't suing for illegal but not criminal things and charges are for criminal acts and always brought by the state?
Operating while insolvent feels like more of a criminal thing to me, more than an illegal act.
~~Yes, it's a criminal act (Straftat). Yet, someone needs to inform the state/police first. This is only not necessary for a so called Offizialdelikt, like e.g. murder. I don't know whether that's the case for economic crimes like this.~~
The Verbraucherzentrale may give advice for the financial part, i.e. how to get some of the money back and how to file the management for compensation.
Edit: In case of insolvence, the public persecutor always investigates for Insolvenzverschleppung and thus it's likely an Offizialdelikt regarding the criminal process. However to sue the management for compensation in a separate civil process, action is required by the ones that have lost their money.