GermanyGesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb, Telephone Advertising Consent
UWG § 7 Abs. 1 und Abs. 2 Nr. 1
In force since .
A telephone contact rule binding private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Consent, Prohibition
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.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text. Also read by: Bundesnetzagentur (guidance, recorded ); Bundesgerichtshof, judgment of , I ZR 7/16 (Cookie-Einwilligung II) (recorded ).
In the frameworks
- NIST Privacy Framework
- CT.PO-P1Policies, processes, and procedures for authorizing data processing (e.g., organizational decisions, individual consent), revoking authorizations, and maintaining authorizations are established and in place.
- FINOS AIGF
- AIR-PREV-005System Acceptance Testing
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
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.
Enforcement record
The Bundesnetzagentur's own annual statement for 2024: eleven fine proceedings for unsolicited telephone advertising and suppressed caller numbers in advertising calls, with fines set at EUR 1.373 million in total (EUR 1.435 million in 2023). The 37,561 written complaints it received in 2024 are not counted as actions.
- As of
- Currency
- EUR
- Source link
- https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/DE/2025/20250120_Telefonwerbung.html
- Fines per year
- 1,373,000
- Actions per year
- 11
Settledness
- As of
- Case link
- https://www.bundesgerichtshof.de/SharedDocs/Entscheidungen/DE/Zivilsenate/I_ZS/2016/I_ZR___7-16A.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=1
- Guidance link
- https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/DE/Vportal/TK/Aerger/Faelle/UEW/FAQ/_function/FAQUnerlaubteWerbeanrufe.html
- Case citation
- Bundesgerichtshof, judgment of , I ZR 7/16 (Cookie-Einwilligung II)
- Guidance body
- Bundesnetzagentur
- Open questions
- When does a telephone survey ('Meinungsumfrage') count as 'Werbung mit einem Telefonanruf' under Section 7(2) number 1 UWG, given that the Bundesnetzagentur treats a survey call that hides advertising as advertising and says each case needs an individual assessment?
- What makes a business or professional market participant's consent 'zumindest mutmaßlich' under Section 7(2) number 1 UWG, when the call is to a market participant who is not a consumer?
What this law does
Section 7(1) makes any unreasonably harassing commercial act unlawful, naming advertising the recipient recognizably does not want as an example. Section 7(2) number 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
When your app profile says your app places automated calls.
Back to the example · Lint your app
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