The archive · Public & Social · Legal decision · 2023–2024
Laut gegen Nazis trademarks Nazi codes so shops selling them break the law
A German NGO registers Nazi codes as EU trademarks, then sues the far-right shops selling them — a legal hack where lawmakers would not ban.
Laut gegen Nazis
What it had to solve
In Germany, online stores openly sell Nazi-coded merchandise whose codes finance far-right scenes, yet lawmakers have not banned the trade. The NGO Laut gegen Nazis (Noise against Nazis) needed a way to stop the shops that did not depend on new legislation.
How it works
German online shops sell Nazi-themed merchandise openly, using coded words and symbols that let buyers recognize the scene. The stores profit, and the far-right scene finances itself through the sales, but lawmakers have been unable or unwilling to ban the trade outright.
Laut gegen Nazis (Noise against Nazis), a Hamburg-based non-profit, found a route that needed no new law: register the Nazi codes as trademarks at the European trademark office. Once the NGO owns the marks, every shop selling t-shirts and sweaters printed with them is a trademark infringer rather than a free-speech seller.
As the rightful owner of the codes, the NGO can compel shops to remove and destroy the offending merch and claim compensation for every item already sold. The campaign launched in October 2023, and the work is held in the D&AD awards archive.
Why it lands
- The idea weaponizes a tool of commerce — trademark ownership — against commerce that harms society.
- Enforcement shifts from the state to the NGO: it can act as rights holder without waiting for politicians or police.
- Every item sold before removal becomes a compensable claim, so the shops' own sales fund the fight.
- The mechanism is repeatable: each newly registered code adds another symbol that is legally off-limits to the trade.
What it did
Shops that keep selling the codes now face legal proceedings, fines and even imprisonment for unpaid penalties — the first mechanism that stops the trade without a ban. The work is held in the D&AD awards archive.
What you can take
When a harmful trade is legal, change who owns its symbols: trademark rights let an NGO police the market through infringement law, an enforcement route that needs no new prohibition.
Since then
The initiative launched in October 2023, and by May 2024 it had secured the rights to 'Enness', the phonetic spelling of NS and one of the bestselling codes in Nazi shops; written warning letters then went out to the stores. A follow-up project, 'Fashion against Fascism', launched in April 2024 with fashion platforms to build a database of Nazi codes so retailers do not distribute them unknowingly.
Sources
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