GermanyGesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb, Commercial Electronic Messages
UWG § 7 Abs. 2 Nr. 2 und 3, Abs. 3
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What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.
In force.
A commercial messages rule binding private bodies.
As of .
What it requires
- Obtain the addressee's prior express consent before advertising using an automatic calling machine, a fax machine, or electronic mail, unless the existing-customer exception below applies.
- You may market your own similar goods or services to an existing customer by electronic mail without fresh consent only if you obtained their electronic address in connection with a sale, they have not objected to that use, and you clearly told them, both when collecting the address and at every use, that they may object at any time at no cost beyond the basic transmission tariff.
- Never send an advertising message that disguises or conceals the sender's identity on whose behalf it is transmitted, that fails to identify the message clearly as a commercial communication with a clearly identifiable sender and clearly identifiable, easily accessible terms for any promotional offer or prize draw, or that invites the recipient to a website with the same failing.
- Every advertising message must carry a valid address the recipient can use to ask that such messages stop, usable at no cost beyond the basic transmission tariff.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureNo
Private right of actionYes
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
For the automatic-calling-machine limb directed at a consumer, the Bundesnetzagentur für Elektrizität, Gas, Telekommunikation, Post und Eisenbahnen imposes the shared fine with telephone advertising. For every other violation of this section, competitors, qualified trade and consumer associations, and chambers of commerce may 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.
What it reaches
Obligation class
Consent, Disclosure, 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(2) Nr. 2 deems an unreasonable harassment always present where a person advertises using an automatic calling machine, a fax machine, or electronic mail without the addressee's prior express consent.
Section 7(3) excuses electronic-mail advertising from that consent requirement where a business obtained the customer's electronic address in connection with selling them a good or service, uses it only to market its own similar goods or services, the customer has not objected, and the customer was clearly told at collection and at every use that they may object at any time at no cost beyond the basic transmission tariff.
Section 7(2) Nr. 3 separately deems an unreasonable harassment always present where an advertising message disguises or conceals the identity of the sender on whose behalf it is transmitted, breaches the commercial-communication labelling duties of Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz § 6(1) (which requires a commercial communication to be clearly identifiable as such, its sender clearly identifiable, and any promotional offer or prize draw clearly identifiable with easily accessible terms) or invites the recipient to a website that itself breaches that duty, or carries no valid address the recipient can use to ask that such messages stop at no cost beyond the basic transmission tariff.
Only the automatic-calling-machine limb of Nr. 2, when directed at a consumer, shares the administrative fine of up to 300,000 euros that UWG § 20(1) Nr. 1 attaches to unconsented telephone advertising; the fax and electronic-mail limb of Nr. 2 and all of Nr. 3 carry no administrative fine of their own under the Unfair Competition Act and are enforced only through the civil injunction and damages actions of UWG §§ 8 and 9.
The Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz separately fines a deliberate disguise of an email's sender or commercial character in its header or subject line up to 300,000 euros under its own § 33(1), (6) Nr. 1(a).
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.