A catering service has now successfully appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) against the publication of the results of a food inspection on the internet. The court found that a considerably delayed publication of the hygiene deficiencies in the so-called food pillory was not compatible with the company's freedom of occupation (case reference: 1 BvR 1949/24 of 28 July 2025).

According to the German Food and Feed Code, the public must be informed „without delay“ about violations of food law. In this case, however, the party service's food law violations had already occurred 17 months previously when the Hessian Administrative Court gave the green light for publication on the internet. This was too late, the Federal Constitutional Court has now ruled. „The further away in time the established violation of food law requirements is, the lower the objective information value of its dissemination, because it is less and less possible to objectively infer the current situation of the company concerned from the violation in the past,“ the BVerfG's press release states. As such a publication on the internet can lead to considerable damage to the company's image and loss of turnover or even the destruction of its existence, the Hessian Administrative Court would have had to weigh up whether publication was still appropriate in view of the time delays in the proceedings with regard to the freedom of occupation protected by the Basic Law.