# We received a letter about Google Fonts demanding 170 euros. Do we pay? | Illia BizTech

> A ten-day deadline, 170 euros and a cease-and-desist undertaking. Checking the site shows the theme really does load two fonts straight from Google.

Source: https://illia-biztech.de/en/forum/wir-haben-einen-brief-wegen-google-fonts-bekommen-und-sollen-170-euro-zahlen-zahlen-wir

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# We received a letter about Google Fonts demanding 170 euros. Do we pay?

A ten-day deadline, 170 euros and a cease-and-desist undertaking. Checking the site shows the theme really does load two fonts straight from Google.

* ##### Asked by  
RestlessWrench955
* ##### Asked on  
September 4, 2026

A letter arrived saying a visitor had opened our site and that their IP address had been transmitted to Google in the process. It demands 170 euros in damages and a signed cease-and-desist undertaking, with a ten-day deadline.

I checked the site, and our theme really does load two fonts directly from Google. The site was built for us in 2021 and has barely been touched since.

My instinct says racket, but the deadline makes me nervous anyway.

#### Answers

![Portrait of Illia Belichenko, technical specialist at Illia BizTech](/_ipx/f_webp,q_75/https://cms.illia-biztech.de/uploads/small_Illia_Belichenko_author_81f88864f0.png)

##### Illia Belichenko

✓ Accepted answer September 5, 2026 

Separate the two things the letter has rolled into one. The technical finding is correct; the demand is a different question.

Technically you investigated and found the right thing: a font loaded from a third party's server transmits the visitor's IP address to it. That is assessed under the GDPR and under [Section 25 TDDDG](https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/ttdsg/%5F%5F25.html), which governs access to the user's device. This part needs dealing with regardless of the letter, and it is the actual work here.

The mass mailings themselves have been a known phenomenon since 2022\. Demands went out at roughly between one hundred and just under five hundred euros, in some cases with legal fees on top, and [heise documented how it unfolded](https://www.heise.de/news/DSGVO-Abmahnwelle-wegen-Google-Fonts-7206364.html).

An Austrian test case brought by one such mass claimant failed, [also reported by heise](https://www.heise.de/news/Google-Fonts-Oesterreichischer-Massen-Abmahner-scheitert-9295922.html).

Before you sign anything, check whether the visitor exists at all. Mass letters go out on the back of automated scans rather than a genuine visit by someone with a genuine interest. Ask in writing exactly when the visit is said to have taken place, and match the date against your server logs.

A pre-drafted cease-and-desist undertaking is not something you sign unexamined. It binds you indefinitely and with a contractual penalty, reaching well beyond the incident itself. If you hand anything here to a lawyer, hand them that, not the 170 euros.

Move the fonts locally regardless, which is half an hour of work: download the files, embed them locally, remove the call to Google from the theme. Then use the developer tools' network tab to confirm that loading the page no longer produces any request to a Google server.

##### 

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**Topics** 
* Google Fonts
* warning letter
* GDPR