Groupon

The Groupon, Inc. is a US-based company that operates various websites with discount offers. According to the company, Groupon is active in 35 countries and has more than seventy million registered users.

The company name is a portmanteau of Group and coupon and indicates the operation of the service: Groupon offers every day a certain discount if enough people come together. The company in this case receives a commission.

The offers are valid for a city or region. At the start of Groupon in November 2008, Chicago was the first to market, followed by Boston, New York City and Toronto. In Germany Groupon is available in more than 40 cities and regions active (as of January 2011). Worldwide, the company serves over 1,000 markets.

History

Andrew Mason launched the site in November 2008, the company initiated since the founding Chief Executive Officer and resigned on 28 February 2013.

In Germany Groupon MyCityDeal took over in May 2010. MyCityDeal was an investment the Samwer brothers Holtzbrinck Ventures.

In April 2010, Digital Sky Technologies invested 135 million U.S. dollars in Groupon. In January 2011, the Company completed a round of financing with $ 950 million. Among the donors listed investment companies such as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Greylock Partners and Andreessen Horowitz.

In 2010, the company was looking for a candidate who would live an entire year exclusively from Groupon coupons, and promised a profit of $ 100,000. Equipped with an inexhaustible coupon access, 365 days spent of Americans Josh Stevens, from 10 May 2010 in order to travel to areas where Groupon offers kept ready. It documented " Groupawn " Stevens his experiences in an online blog ( http://liveoffgroupon.com/ ).

In December 2010, Groupon rejected a takeover offer from Google in the amount of approximately $ 6 billion. In early November 2011, the company went with a value of around € 13 billion on the stock market. In fiscal year 2011/12 Groupon made ​​a loss of 351 million dollars.

Since February 2013 a large number of spam e-mails will be sent to the address with which users at Groupon City Deal or had registered. The elucidation of the cause, such as theft or sale is according to statements of Groupon yet.

Criticism

The discounts offered are evaluated by the Consumer as loss leaders. In addition, Groupon has been criticized mainly in the U.S. but also in Germany from cooperation partners. In particular, the contractual terms and commissions by 50 percent on average are often cause for criticism. In addition, is levied on the related commission on the gross price in the settlement again VAT, so that the effective commission rate is higher than it is suggested to the partners in the contract. For the partners, the success is often doubtful. Often can be minimized at the same time yield few buyers win as regular customers so that a dramatically increased sales over, only a small increase in profit, while the promised marketing effect is absent.

The Business Week spoke in March 2011 a " warning before discount websites " off. In March 2012, criticized the British competition authority ( ' Office of Fair Trading ' ) Groupon having violated by, for example, incorrect information on prices of consumer rights. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating Groupon, because the company had to correct its figures repeatedly in retrospect down ( including the first quarter numbers after the IPO ).

Der Spiegel reported in August 2012 critical of Groupon.

Legal Aspects

With the civil rights issues in coupon purchases on -line coupon sites dealt in detail the essay service / disc plow, JurPC Web Doc. 147/2012, para 1 - 103 This paper examines the legal nature of the online coupon, the content and the Parties to the coupon deal. He also gives an overview of individual legal aspects of couponing with a focus on consumer law issues. The focus is in particular the elimination of balances with only partial redemption and the limitation of the validity period of the voucher.

At the expiration dates of coupons from Groupon so far the AG Cologne and Berlin court have taken a position. The effectiveness of the limitation of acquired via coupon sites coupons analyzed the contribution Service / disc plow, consumers and law, 2013, 83 The authors assume that in heavily discounted service vouchers may be appropriate in individual cases even set the validity period of less than three months.