BGH publishes reasoning for ruling on the inadmissibility of advertising in “no-reply” confirmation emails
On December 15, 2015, the Federal Court of Justice ruled: Sending a transactional email with advertising content against the declared will of the addressee is a violation of general personal rights and is therefore illegal.
In short, if you do not have permission from your recipient to send advertising, you may not send them any advertising content in a transactional email.
New ruling on advertising in no-replay emails
In the case in question from December 2013, a consumer sent a cancellation honduras phone number data notice by email and asked for confirmation of the cancellation. The plaintiff then received an automatic confirmation email, which contained advertising in addition to the confirmation of receipt of his email. He was offered a weather notification service via SMS. After the plaintiff contacted the service provider again by email and stated that he did not agree to this advertising, he received the automatic "no-reply" email again - with advertising. The consumer was ultimately found to be right in court:
The VI Civil Senate, which is responsible, among other things, for the law of torts, has decided […] that emails containing advertising content sent against the expressed will of a consumer constitute a violation of general personal rights.
The decisive factor was the sending of the last confirmation email with advertising supplement on 19 December 2013, which violated the plaintiff's general personal rights because it was sent against his previously declared express will.
The full reasoning behind the BGH’s judgment can be found here:
You still don’t want to miss out on advertising in all transactional emails?
Our recommendation:
Create two versions of your transactional emails and decide which one should be sent depending on the permission. If consent to the newsletter has been given, advertising content can be included in transactional emails.
If you have any questions about this topic, please contact our consultants.
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