Stiftung Warentest
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| Independent Foundation under civil law | |
| Founded | 1964 in Berlin, Germany |
| Founder | Federal Republic of Germany |
| Headquarters | Berlin-Tiergarten, Germany |
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Area served
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Germany |
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Key people
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Hubertus Primus |
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Number of employees
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316 in Germany (2012) |
| Website | test.de |
Stiftung Warentest is a German consumer organisation and foundation involved in investigating and comparing goods and services in an unbiased way. It was founded on 4 December 1964 by the Federal Republic of Germany as an independent foundation under civil law. It is based in Berlin. Beyond its subscriber base and media coverage, content from Stiftung Warentest can be disseminated through word of mouth.
Stiftung Warentest has an important role in two main areas. On the one hand it has the task of comparing objective aspects such as usefulness, functionality and environmental impact, and on the other hand it has the mission of educating consumers so they can learn how to make best use of the income available to them and behave in a health promoting and environmentally aware way.
Due to its very well known and established reputation as an independent and reliable organization, the foundation has a considerable influence on the buying behavior of consumers. Good ratings and verdicts are often given great prominence in product advertising and on product packaging. In contrast, bad ratings and verdicts frequently lead to a decline in sales and thus sometimes legal action against SW by the manufacturers. According to SW, they are sued ten times a year. The foundation has never actually been ordered by the courts to pay compensation and usually wins any legal action taken against it.
Stiftung Warentest is self-financing, selling its own magazines test (annual circulation on average 462,000 copies) and Finanztest (234,000), books and special magazine issues, and also investigation results as paid-for content on its own website. Sales revenues in 2012 totalled approximately €39.5 million.
The foundation also receives a subsidy of €3.5 million from the Federal Ministry of Nutrition, Agriculture and Consumer Protection. This is compensation for the fact that it does not carry any advertisements in its publications because this could compromise its independence.
Stiftung Warentest carries out more than 200 comparative product tests and investigations of services from nearly all areas of everyday life every year. Since 2002, products and services on special limited offer, mainly by the discount retailer chains, have also been investigated every week and the results quickly published. Aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been a part of the investigations of some specified products since 2004. There is also a section on investigated medication ("Medikamente im Test"), which provides information about more than 9000 medicines and 175 areas of application.
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