Last reviewed: 2 November 2026

Translated from German; if the versions differ, the German version applies.

Not legal advice: Legal content on this page appears only as verbatim quotations from statutes, court rulings or authority papers, with their source; quotations from German texts are our working translations. We do not assess them ourselves, and no lawyer has reviewed this page. It is no substitute for legal advice in your individual case.

Opt-out

In short: To opt out means to take yourself off something. In email marketing the word has two meanings: unsubscribing itself, for example via an unsubscribe link, and a model in which someone receives messages until they object – the counterpart to opt-in, where agreement comes first.

Two meanings

Opt-out as an action: A person who no longer wants a newsletter takes themselves off the list – via the unsubscribe link, via a button in their mail program or by replying to the sender. A suppression list then technically prevents the address from being written to again after a later import.

Opt-out as a model: People are written to without prior agreement, and anyone who no longer wants to receive anything has to object actively. With opt-in it is the other way round: first the agreement, then the messages. The terms opt-in and opt-out do not appear in the wording of the GDPR or of Section 7 of the UWG (the German Act against Unfair Competition, Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb); what the texts do say is shown by the quotations below.

Quotations from German laws and authority papers are our working translations; only the German wording is authoritative (see the German version of this page). GDPR quotations follow the official English text.

On consent, Recital 32 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) states: “Silence, pre-ticked boxes or inactivity should not therefore constitute consent.”

On objecting to direct marketing, the GDPR provides: “Where the data subject objects to processing for direct marketing purposes, the personal data shall no longer be processed for such purposes.” (Art. 21(3) GDPR)

For advertising to customers, Section 7(3) UWG names, among other things, the conditions that “the customer has not objected to the use” (no. 3) and that the customer “is clearly and distinctly informed, when the address is collected and each time it is used, that they may object to the use at any time without incurring any costs other than the transmission costs at the basic rates” (no. 4, our translation).

On how unsubscribing should work, the German data protection authorities (Datenschutzkonferenz, DSK) write: “It should be possible to unsubscribe from email advertising with one click if possible (clicking the unsubscribe link in the promotional email) without additional hurdles or obstacles.” (DSK guidance on direct marketing, February 2022, section 5.3, p. 19, our translation)

We give no legal assessment of our own as to when which model is permissible. Further wordings: Unsubscribing from a newsletter and Advertising to existing customers.

Sources

Verordnung (EU) 2016/679 (Datenschutz-Grundverordnung), Erwägungsgründe 32, 43, 47, Art. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 21, 25 und 28, Europäische Union (EUR-Lex), Erwägungsgründe 32, 43 und 47; Art. 4 Nr. 4 und 11, Art. 5 Abs. 1 lit. c, Art. 6 Abs. 1 (lit. a, b und f), Art. 7 Abs. 1 bis 4, Art. 8 Abs. 1, Art. 9, Art. 13 Abs. 1 und 2, Art. 21 Abs. 2 bis 4, Art. 25 Abs. 2, Art. 28 Abs. 3 DSGVO; zusätzlich Art. 4 Nr. 7, Art. 13 Abs. 1 lit. d, Art. 28 Abs. 1 und 9, Erwägungsgrund 47 Sätze 1, 2 und 4 (in German) (accessed on 2 November 2026)
§ 7 UWG – Unzumutbare Belästigungen, Bundesministerium der Justiz / Bundesamt für Justiz, § 7 Abs. 2 Nr. 2, Abs. 2 Nr. 3, Abs. 3 UWG (in German) (accessed on 2 November 2026)
Orientierungshilfe der Aufsichtsbehörden zur Verarbeitung von personenbezogenen Daten für Zwecke der Direktwerbung unter Geltung der DSGVO (Februar 2022), Datenschutzkonferenz (DSK), Abschnitt 1.1 (Begriff der Werbung, S. 3), 1.3.2 (Praxisfälle Interessenabwägung, Profiling, S. 5), 1.4.1 (Bestandskunden, S. 6), 2.1 (Informationspflichten, S. 7–8), 3.1 (Gestaltung der Einwilligung, S. 10–11), 3.2 (Visitenkarten, S. 11), 3.3 (Double-Opt-In-Verfahren, S. 11–12), 3.4 (Koppelungsverbot, S. 12), 3.5 (Gültigkeitsdauer, S. 13), 3.6 (besondere Kategorien, S. 14), 3.7 (Widerruf, Nachweis, S. 14–15), 4.2 (Impressumsdaten, S. 15), 4.3 (Beipack-Werbung, S. 15), 5.1–5.4 (Werbewiderspruch, S. 17–20); 1.3.1 (Grundsätzliches zur Interessenabwägung, S. 4) (in German) (accessed on 2 November 2026)

How it differs

Opt-out, withdrawal and objection: On consent, the GDPR says: “The data subject shall have the right to withdraw his or her consent at any time.” (Art. 7(3) sentence 1 GDPR) Objection to direct marketing is governed by Art. 21 GDPR. In everyday language, both are often simply called “unsubscribing”.
Opt-out and double opt-in: Double opt-in concerns the beginning of a subscription, opt-out its end.
Opt-out and suppression list: The suppression list is the technical memory for objections that have been declared.

Easily confused

“Double opt-out”: The authorities mention this expression in connection with withdrawal: “For example, where consent is withdrawn via an online contact form, confirmation via the email address known to the controller can be requested, in line with a kind of ‘double opt-out’ procedure.” (guidance, section 3.7, p. 14, our translation)
Opt-out in other fields: The word is also used outside marketing, with its own meaning there. This page is only about email.

Sources

Orientierungshilfe der Aufsichtsbehörden zur Verarbeitung von personenbezogenen Daten für Zwecke der Direktwerbung unter Geltung der DSGVO (Februar 2022), Datenschutzkonferenz (DSK), Abschnitt 1.1 (Begriff der Werbung, S. 3), 1.3.2 (Praxisfälle Interessenabwägung, Profiling, S. 5), 1.4.1 (Bestandskunden, S. 6), 2.1 (Informationspflichten, S. 7–8), 3.1 (Gestaltung der Einwilligung, S. 10–11), 3.2 (Visitenkarten, S. 11), 3.3 (Double-Opt-In-Verfahren, S. 11–12), 3.4 (Koppelungsverbot, S. 12), 3.5 (Gültigkeitsdauer, S. 13), 3.6 (besondere Kategorien, S. 14), 3.7 (Widerruf, Nachweis, S. 14–15), 4.2 (Impressumsdaten, S. 15), 4.3 (Beipack-Werbung, S. 15), 5.1–5.4 (Werbewiderspruch, S. 17–20); 1.3.1 (Grundsätzliches zur Interessenabwägung, S. 4) (in German) (accessed on 2 November 2026)

Example

Technically, there is a second route besides the link in the text: header fields through which the mail program itself displays an “Unsubscribe” button. The example from RFC 8058 (Section 8.1):

List-Unsubscribe: <https://example.com/unsubscribe/opaquepart>
List-Unsubscribe-Post: List-Unsubscribe=One-Click

If the person clicks the button, the program sends a POST request to this address and the unsubscribe is done without a web page having to be opened. Gmail requires one-click unsubscribe from senders who send more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail accounts. Yahoo requires a working List-Unsubscribe header and gives a deadline of 2 days for processing unsubscribes.

Frequently asked questions

What does opt-out mean? To take yourself off something or to decide against something. For newsletters it usually means unsubscribing, or a model in which people are written to without prior agreement.

What is the difference between opt-in and opt-out? With opt-in, agreement comes first; with opt-out, the objection comes afterwards. Neither term appears in the GDPR or in Section 7 UWG; the wording on consent, withdrawal and objection is in the section above.

What do the authorities and mailbox providers say about timing? The German data protection authorities write: “If the objection is made via a link in a promotional email or via a setting in the customer portal, the personal data are no longer processed pursuant to Art. 21(3) GDPR. For purely electronically sent advertising, there is no reason in these cases to deviate from the wording of the law, according to which the objection must be complied with immediately.” (guidance, section 5.4, p. 20, our translation) Yahoo gives bulk senders a deadline of 2 days.

Matching tool

Pre-send checklist: check the unsubscribe link and List-Unsubscribe before every mailing.