How bloggers can insure themselves against warning letters

I'm certainly not telling you anything sensationally new that Blogging from Germanyis not always without risk. There can be the threat of warning letters, which can quickly turn into an incalculable risk. With the often incomprehensibly high amounts in dispute that are generally set, you often quickly end up with high three-digit amounts (sometimes even higher) for ONE SINGLE warning letter. Reasons for a warning letter are usually found in copyright or personal rights infringements. Sometimes even small things, such as errors in the Imprint or data protection declarations can lead to expensive warnings.

Is it possible to insure against warning letters?

Legal expenses insurance may cover the costs of a legal dispute, but not the actual costs of the warning letter. With private liability insurance, you are also more likely to come up against granite. To get real protection against warnings, you need special insurance cover, such as that offered by Exali. However, this protection comes at a price. In the following, I will take a closer look at Exali's offer and examine whether it is a must-have insurance policy or one that bloggers can do without.

In question is Exali for bloggers the "Media liability" tariff. This is a tariff that is made up of several modules. Bloggers generally only need the "VSH" module, i.e. financial loss liability insurance. This module covers all liability risks that may arise when operating blogs. All risk also means that all risks are covered, even those that are not explicitly listed. Everything is insured that is not exclusively prohibited in the insurance conditions.

Insured are for example:

• • Copyright infringement
  • Infringement of trademark and licensing rights
  • Violation of name and personality rights
  • Infringement of competition rights
  • Violation of data protection rights
  • Disclosure of confidential information
  • Transmission of malware

All liability risks that a blogger may face are therefore covered. The insurance therefore covers the defense against damages, the claims that third parties can make against you. It is also important to mention that Exali also steps in and takes over the insurance cover if the claim is due to slight or even gross negligence.

As mentioned at the beginning, the insurance cover is not cheap. An annual fee of just under 400 euros is payable for basic property liability cover. In addition, a personal contribution of 500 euros must be paid in the event of a claim.

For bloggers, this will certainly raise the question:

Is this insurance worthwhile or should one not rather bear the liability risks oneself.

The answer is not easy to answer. Generally speaking, the more and the more professionally you blog, the more you should consider taking out media liability insurance. The liability risks to which bloggers are exposed are manifold and really do exist at all times. A warning can come like the famous bolt from a cloudless sky and hit anyone. The small blogger who blogs about goldfish as well as the professional blogger who writes several articles a day and has to bear responsibility for them.

Incidentally, warning letters do not become less expensive because someone only has a blog with five visitors and runs it purely as a hobby. However, someone who only writes 10 articles a year definitely has a smaller risk, simply because there is less of a target.

In my opinion, media liability insurance for bloggers is something you can take out, but you don't necessarily have to. If you want to sleep peacefully without having to worry about warnings, it's definitely a good thing.

You will simply have to make a risk assessment for yourself. For the annual costs of this insurance, taking into account the deductible, in most cases it is cheaper to go without insurance for a single warning. If there are more, liability insurance can quickly pay off.