Legal

Yes, the business model is legal. That is a very clear and unequivocal answer.

We mostly sell OEM products and in some cases also retail products. The product characteristics of a product provide information about which product type it is in each case. We obtain all products exclusively from authorized German distributors and wholesalers for software, taking into account the intended economic area for which the product is released. We only offer OEM and retail product keys in our online shop, no MSDN products. MSDN is reserved for the acquisition of schools, universities, government, etc.

OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. In the original sense, this meant that product keys can only be sold as part of a complete system, ie as a fixed, pre-installed component of a new computer.

Since the judgment of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) of July 6, 2000, it has been officially recorded that the sale of OEM/DSP versions as so-called system builder keys is now legal even without the associated hardware. This judgment also states, among other things, that the principle of exhaustion cannot be overridden by the manufacturer’s license provisions (I ZR 244/97). This has also been confirmed by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). In Germany, OEM products are no longer tied to hardware and can also be transferred to other devices as long as the software is only used once.

For you as the end user, this means that all items in our online shop are legal and you can install and use them on any computer.