Complaint Procedures

The Complaint Office of the Voluntary Self-Monitoring of Multimedia Providers (FSM) receives complaints about contents spread or provided over online services. In preliminary proceedings content providers and server operators are identified and the alleged infringement is documented.

A unique reference number is assigned to each complaint and announced to the complainant. If the content is hosted on a server abroad, the complaint is forwarded to an appropriate authority in the respective country, particularly to the INHOPE hotline. If there is evidence that life, physical condition or the freedom of persons are threatened, the FSM will inform the respective authorities. Personal data of the complainant is, however, omitted before forwarding the complaint to a third party. If the FSM is obviously not the responsible institution for dealing with a specific complaint, the complainant will be informed about the correct self-monitoring organisation, its contact details and complaint procedures. If a complaint concerns a member of the FSM, the member will be informed at once and is given the opportunity to take corrective actions on its own. Complaints against German telemedia providers and non-members of the FSM may be remitted anonymously to the appropriate State Media Agency.

If the FSM is responsible for dealing with a complaint, and it is not certain whether the respective service of a member violates the FSM codes of conduct, the provider will be requested to speak out on the issue or to take corrective actions within a fixed period. If the respondent does not alter his service within this time or the complaint is focusing a member of the FSM and was initiated by the Commission for Youth Protection in Media (KJM) or another legal state authority of youth protection or welfare, the complaint will be submitted to the Board of Complaint.

The results of the Board of Complaint’s proceedings must be documented and reasoned in written form (commission’s report). This report contains the ruling, the documentation of the content of the service which was significant for the decision and the grounds. These grounds must cover a decisive consideration and indicate the basis of FSM articles or guidelines within the appropriate rulings of the German Interstate Treaty on the protection of minors (JMStV). The special significance on basis of the JMStV must be considered in the report. If the Board of Complaint agrees with the complaint, the decision is announced as an advice including the request to redress and to take corrective actions or as a reprehension, depending on the gravity of the violation. The complainant is informed about the result of the proceedings.

If the complainant, the respondent or a legal state authority of youth protection or welfare does not agree with the ruling, they may appeal against the decision. An appeal may be issued within two weeks of the announcement of the decision. The decision whether the appeal is admissible lies with the Appeal Commission. Members of the Appeal Commission must not be members of the Board of Complaint of this case. Through a timely appeal the validity of the appealed decision will be delayed. The head of the Complaint Office remits a copy of the appeal to the respondent and will give him opportunity to speak out in written form within three weeks. Members of the original Board of Complaint who determined the first decision are excluded from the Appeal Commission and its final decision. If the Appeal Commission’s decision or grounds differ from the original Board of Complaint’s report, the essential reasons have to be presented in an Appeal Commission report.

If the appeal is not issued within two weeks or the Appeal Commission does not come to a decision different from the Board of Complaint’s ruling, the decision is definitive and the respondent must fulfil its rulings. If the Appeal Commission decides on a reprehension, the member of FSM has to publish this reprehension in its online services for one month. If a member does not take corrective actions despite having repeatedly been urged to do so, a penalty may be imposed upon the provider, or the respective company may be excluded from membership in the FSM.

A Joint Commission of the several Boards of Complaint was established to assure standardised decisions of the FSM Board of Complaint. A Board of Complaint has to apply to the Joint Commission in case the surveyors want to depart in their decisions in a point of law from an earlier decision by the Appeal Commission or the Joint Commission. Furthermore, the Joint Commission decides cases of the Appeal Commission which are of interest for all members of FSM. The Joint Commission consists of nine members, among them the chairman of the current Appeal Commission and the chairman of the Appeal Commission the decision of which shall now be overruled.

The Joint Commission only decides in the referred point of law. The Joint Commission’s decision is obligatory for the Appeal Commission. Both members of the Complaint Office and of the Appeal Commission have to treat the complaint and the respective proceedings in confidence. Therefore, the complainant’s identity will not be revealed, not even to the respondent. The final ruling on a complaint against a member of the FSM is, including the grounds, published anonymously on the FSM web page. The announcement of reprehensions, penalties and exclusions, however, will reveal the respondent’s name.