Participants
must coaching
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Participants
must coaching
pay.
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Lawsuit unsuccessful. The LG Hamburg clarifies when coaching programs are not subject to the Distance Learning Protection Act.
Online coaching permitted without approval
One participant booked a comprehensive dropshipping coaching program via an internet platform. The “E. M. P.” program included 86 instructional videos with a total length of 27 hours, weekly Zoom calls from Monday to Saturday and WhatsApp support. After paying three installments, the participant demanded his money back. His reasoning: The contract was void under the Distance Learning Protection Act (FernUSG), as the provider did not have approval from the State Central Office for Distance Learning. He also felt that he had been fraudulently misled and considered the price to be immoral.
No learning success monitoring, no distance learning
The Hamburg Regional Court dismissed the claim in its ruling of July 21, 2025 (case no. 311 O 393/24). The decisive question was whether monitoring of learning success was owed – a central feature of the FernUSG.
Individual guidance of the learner is always required, which enables learning success to be monitored and can also be demanded by the learner.
In the present case, this was precisely what was missing. The contract did not provide for any tests or examinations, and the Zoom calls were not used to check knowledge, but to clarify individual business issues. The program aimed to enable participants to establish an online store – classic coaching without qualification. Terms such as “graduate” or “certificate” were also missing. Furthermore, it could not be proven that 1:1 support had been agreed. The challenge on the grounds of fraudulent misrepresentation and the allegation of usury also failed due to a lack of sufficient evidence.
Conclusion
Not every digital educational offer falls under the FernUSG. Case law increasingly differentiates between knowledge transfer with monitoring and process-oriented coaching without formal qualification. The decisive factor in this case was whether structured monitoring of learning success with individual guidance was owed. The content of the respective coaching is also relevant. The OLG Celle(decision of 09.07.2025, ref.: 24 U 12/25), for example, denied the applicability of the FernUSG in the case of life coaching due to a lack of knowledge transfer.
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