GermanyGesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb, Telephone Advertising Consent
UWG § 7 Abs. 1 und Abs. 2 Nr. 1
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What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.
In force.
A telephone contact rule binding private bodies.
As of .
What it requires
- Obtain a consumer's prior express consent before advertising to them by telephone call.
- Before advertising by telephone call to another business or professional market participant (not a consumer), obtain at least that participant's presumed consent, judged by whether the call fits their known or reasonably inferable interests.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureNo
Private right of actionYes
Penalty structure
Applies only where the call was directed at a consumer without prior express consent (UWG § 20(1) Nr. 1, (2)); a violation of the same paragraph's second limb, advertising to another market participant without at least presumed consent, carries no administrative fine of its own and is enforced only through the civil actions in UWG §§ 8 and 9.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- EUR
- Fixed cap
- 300,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Bundesnetzagentur für Elektrizität, Gas, Telekommunikation, Post und Eisenbahnen for the administrative fine on a violation directed at a consumer. Competitors, qualified trade and consumer associations, and chambers of commerce may separately seek an injunction under UWG § 8, and a competitor may claim damages under UWG § 9(1); the Unfair Competition Act gives a consumer no damages claim of their own for this violation.
What it reaches
Obligation class
Consent, Prohibition
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Section 7(1) makes any unreasonably harassing commercial act unlawful, naming advertising the recipient recognizably does not want as an example. Section 7(2) Nr. 1 deems an unreasonable harassment always present where a person advertises by telephone call to a consumer without that consumer's prior express consent, or to another market participant without at least that participant's presumed consent.
When LexLint raises it
automated_outreach
Read the law
Official text, Bundesministerium der Justiz and Bundesamt für Justiz, gesetze-im-internet.de
Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.