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.

Sender, subject line, labelling, unsubscribing

Sender and subject line: Section 6(2) DDG

Quotations from German laws, court rulings 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.

Section 6(2) of the Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz (DDG, the German act on digital services) reads:

“Where commercial communications are sent by electronic mail, neither the sender nor the commercial nature of the message may be disguised or concealed in the header and in the subject line. Disguising or concealing exists where the header or the subject line is deliberately designed in such a way that the recipient, before viewing the content of the communication, receives no information or misleading information about the actual identity of the sender or the commercial nature of the message.” (our translation) — Section 6(2) DDG

Labelling: Section 6(1) DDG and Section 5a(4) UWG

“When making commercial communications that are digital services or components of digital services, service providers must at least observe that

1. commercial communications must be clearly recognisable as such,
2. the natural or legal person on whose behalf commercial communications are made must be clearly identifiable, […]” (our translation)

— Section 6(1) nos. 1 and 2 DDG

Whether every promotional newsletter is a commercial communication that is a digital service or a component of a digital service is not expressly answered by the law.

Section 5a(4) of the UWG (the German Act against Unfair Competition, Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb) reads:

“A person also acts unfairly who does not make the commercial purpose of a commercial practice recognisable, unless it is immediately apparent from the circumstances, and where not making it recognisable is likely to cause the consumer or other market participant to take a transactional decision that they would not otherwise have taken. A commercial purpose does not exist in the case of an act for the benefit of another business if the person acting does not receive or accept the promise of any payment or similar consideration for the act from the other business. The receipt or promise of consideration is presumed unless the person acting credibly shows that they have not received any.” (our translation) — Section 5a(4) UWG

Opt-out address: Section 7(2) no. 3 UWG

“An unacceptable nuisance is always to be assumed […] in the case of advertising with a message a) in which the identity of the sender on whose behalf the message is transmitted is disguised or concealed, or b) in which Section 6(1) of the Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz is infringed or in which the recipient is asked to visit a website that infringes this provision, or c) in which there is no valid address to which the recipient can send a request to stop such messages without incurring any costs other than the transmission costs at the basic rates.” (our translation)

— Section 7(2) no. 3 UWG

On withdrawing consent, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) says: “It shall be as easy to withdraw as to give consent.” (Art. 7(3) sentence 4 GDPR)

In addition, the large mailbox providers have rules of their own (not laws): Gmail requires bulk senders to offer one-click unsubscribe in the email header in accordance with RFC 8058 and a clearly visible unsubscribe link in the body; Yahoo requires unsubscribes to be honoured within two days. Technology and deadlines: Unsubscribing from a newsletter.

Provider details (Impressum) in the newsletter?

Many sending platforms add a footer with the sender’s name, postal address and contact details. The general information obligations – in Germany the basis of the Impressum, the legal notice on websites – are set out in Section 5(1) DDG:

“For business-like digital services, generally offered for remuneration, service providers must keep the following information permanently available, easily recognisable and directly accessible: […]” (our translation) — Section 5(1) DDG

Whether this information must also appear in every single email is not expressly answered by the law or by the authority papers quoted here.