Which are not enforceable, as we can see. Living in Germany? Downloaded a torrent and sent 16KiB of that torrent back, got a letter from random lawyer to pay 350eur to somewhere? Not enforceable.
I'm not familiar with how lawsuits work in Europe/European countrys, but in the US anyone can sue anyone for any reason at any time (with very specific, few restrictions).
If it's anything like the US, as long as it's not a completely spam/bogus lawsuit then it might not be enforcable but you still have to hire a lawyer and go through that painful process.
AND it sounds to me like Europe is similar to the US in that you may be sued by a state/country you don't reside in as long as you technically operate there (which everyone does now with the internet).
a) Law suit culture does not exist here, but yes you can,
b) I'm truly speaking from experience... and a lot of people had that experience. You get a random useless letter from random useless agency that is making money from not lawsuits, but agreements from people who don't know they don't have to pay. It's a legalised scam kinda. Got a letter that you downloaded something sometime? Ignore. They want like 300-500eur to settle (it's not in court!). And they will not take it to court, because they instantly lose (and cover my costs of my lawyer) - they cannot actually prove *indeed you person* shared it, done. It's a business model of some shady (but legal) legal offices.
Couple of edits after reading the OPs comment again:
- most of the countries in Europe do not have precedence law,
- you do not NEED to hire a lawyer, most things are easy.
Does the loser always pay, or only if the judge rules the suit was frivolous? If it is always, that might cause the us not to have a lawsuit culture either.
