Stiftung Warentest has to reposition itself financially. The federal government does not want to continue the previous funding. In the future, the foundation’s capital alone should be sufficient to test more than 25,000 products per year.

Stiftung Warentest: federal funding is coming to an end

The Stiftung Warentest must exclusively self-finance in the future. The federal budget still contains funds for funding, but these will expire in 2024. Until then, the subsidy will decrease every year. For 2022, the foundation will still receive 970,000 euros, a year later a final transfer of 490,000 euros is due. According to the Ministry of Consumer Protection, the “recently increased foundation capital” should be sufficient (source: n-tv).

The discontinued grants should not be understood “as a signal that the federal government is distancing itself from the foundation”. The Stiftung Warentest is financially well positioned and therefore do not require any further subsidies.

Compensation payments were previously planned because the Stiftung Warentest, according to its statutes no income from advertising may generate. In the meantime, however, business has been going so well with the sale of the “Test” booklets, which have been published since 1966, that state support has hardly led to any significant increase in income.

Whether Stiftung Warentest or Öko-Test: You should always pay attention to this.

When the endowment capital was last increased in 2016 and 2017 for a total of 100 million euros It is said that Stiftung Warentest has come closer to its own goal of financial independence from the state.

Consumer centers receive more funding

Instead of the Stiftung Warentest, the federal government would like to strengthen the consumer centers financially. The Federal Association of Consumers can decide for the year 2022 on a Subsidy of around 23.8 million euros be happy. A year ago, the umbrella organization of the 16 consumer centers received half a million euros less from the state.