Preamble

Reputation. This applies not least to furniture "Made in Germany". In times of increasing globalisation and export orientation of German furniture manufacturers, the term "Made in Germany" is becoming more and more important, as customers rely on indications of the quality of the products and are happy to accept them.

According to the case law of the Federal Court of Justice 1, the consumer associates the term "Made in Germany" with the fact that the essential manufacturing process takes place in Germany, which gives the product its quality and characteristic features that are decisive for the consumer.

The term "Möbel Made in Germany" (furniture made in Germany) thereby takes up the consumer's expectation associated with the manufacturing process with regard to the quality and characteristic properties of the product and, with the requirements mentioned below and their proof, defines a high-grade quality for this mark that goes beyond this, which implies the concepts of reliability, safety and healthy living. It stands for "creating values" in the sense of something valuable and lasting, but also for "having values". This is particularly true of furniture manufacturers based in Germany or producing here.

The Association of the German Furniture Industry (Verband der Deutschen Möbelindustrie e.V., VDM) therefore introduces, in addition to the definition of "Furniture Made in Germany" for furniture models/programmes, a design, production and quality monitoring - traceably carried out in Germany on the basis of defined criteria - on the basis of a geographical origin guarantee mark for "Furniture Made in Germany", the requirements of which are regularly monitored externally at the production site.