The legal framework for operating Serenity Mail in Germany is being considered from the perspective of the client's potential liability before the law, supervisory authorities, and third parties.

In recent years, especially since the GDPR/DSGVO came into force and against the backdrop of the application of the German UWG, the issue of liability for targeted B2B advertising outreach has been widely discussed and often artificially dramatized.

As of May 2026, we are not aware of any EU or German laws other than the GDPR/DSGVO and the UWG that directly regulate the liability of the sender of B2B email.

Legislation does not provide a clear boundary between lawful and unlawful B2B advertising and data processing, so the assessment of violations and sanctions usually depends on the specific court decision.

Nevertheless, it is important to understand exactly what liability is provided by law if your actions are deemed a violation. The decision should be made based on the real possible consequences, not on general fears surrounding the topic of B2B mailings.

GDPR/DSGVO

GDPR/DSGVO covers the processing, storage, and use of personal data, as well as hidden tracking, which may be considered unlawful.

The law does not provide a clear boundary for when working with company contacts from public sources is lawful or unlawful. At the same time, Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR explicitly allows legitimate interest as a legal basis for data processing.

GDPR/DSGVO provides for administrative fines and claims for compensation for damages. The main fines apply for unlawful processing of personal data, lack of a legal basis, insufficient security, data breaches, unlawful tracking, profiling, and hidden collection of user data.

Maximum fines - up to 10 million euros / 2% of turnover or up to 20 million euros / 4% of turnover.

The well-known large fines primarily concern major digital platforms and telecommunications companies, such as Google, Meta/Facebook, and others.

We were unable to find fines or known court rulings specifically under GDPR/DSGVO for standard B2B email campaigns, or for the storage and processing of SMB contact data for such campaigns.

§7 UWG

Section 7 of the UWG has become almost a symbol of disputes over B2B mailings because it explicitly mentions email.

The legislator intended to restrict intrusive advertising as a tool of unfair competition. However, the wording of §7 UWG turned out to be so broad that virtually any advertising by email, telephone, or fax can formally be interpreted as unzumutbare Belästigung — impermissible intrusive nuisance, even if it is a single message sent over many years.

This law does not provide for direct liability to the state, but it allows the recipient of any email that could be considered advertising to demand that the mailing stop, as well as compensation for damages and expenses.

The legislator intended to limit intrusive advertising, but the broad wording gave lawyers the opportunity to apply §7 UWG much more broadly - including against individual promotional emails.

In the early 2000s, spam email annoyed everyone, including judges, so in some cases courts agreed with that interpretation. Usually it involved compensation of 100–500 euros plus attorney and court costs.

Claims industry

The result was a separate industry of claims surrounding promotional emails.

For any email that could be interpreted as advertising, lawyers started sending demands, citing GDPR/DSGVO and §7 UWG.

Since rulings in favor of plaintiffs did indeed occur, some entrepreneurs preferred to pay immediately, while others defended themselves in court—often successfully.

This increased costs for legitimate businesses but had little effect on actual spam, because professional spammers had designed their operations from the outset to make it difficult to hold them accountable.

As a result, the issue attracted significant media attention and gained a reputation as a serious legal risk.

Case law

In the context of §7 UWG, such cases were usually built in conjunction with the GDPR/DSGVO: §7 UWG was used as an argument that the advertising communication was impermissible, and the GDPR as an argument that the processing of personal data was unlawful and as a basis for compensation.

However, since 2022, the practice has begun to change: courts have increasingly required not just a reference to a violation, but proof of actual individual harm.

In the BGH decision of 28.01.2025, VI ZR 109/23, concerning unsolicited promotional email, the court confirmed that a GDPR violation in itself does not automatically give rise to a right to compensation. The claimant must substantiate specific non-material damage or a real loss of control over data.

Since 2023, we know of no new successful lawsuits based on GDPR/DSGVO + §7 UWG for ordinary B2B email campaigns.

Real risks

However, the claims industry has not disappeared, and the chance of receiving a properly drafted demand letter from a lawyer even for a single promotional email based on GDPR/DSGVO and §7 UWG still remains.

Usually, such claims demand compensation, payment of attorney fees, and confirmation that the mailing has been stopped.

Since some entrepreneurs continue to prefer quick payment over legal disputes, this practice has effectively turned into a kind of legal mechanism for extracting money from businesses.

Our rating

We believe that the risks of targeted and limited B2B email campaigns are currently minimal and comparable to the usual risks of any business activity.

A completely legally risk-free business does not exist: in almost any field, there are gray areas and disputable interpretations of the law.

A targeted and limited email campaign does not in itself increase the overall business risk, but it may trigger individual claims seeking compensation.

We believe that such requests should not be fulfilled automatically. For this, we provide the correct response format with a refusal and justification of the position.

Important note

This text does not constitute legal advice.

The information has been prepared in good faith, but you assess and accept independently the decision to use Serenity Mail and the associated risks.

If in doubt, consult a lawyer.

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