Email Newsletters – Double-opt-in double bind?
Following a controversial court decision, there has been some uproar recently in the German online industry and legal circles in regard to email newsletters. The Munich Court of Appeals has passed a ruling according to which even a formal newsletter confirmation email a may be considered illegal spam (OLG München, 27.09.2012 – 29 U 1682/12, link, see also Fabian Laucken’s German language article on the subject: Link). If this decision is taken literally, this could lead to the end of closed-loop email authentication for email newsletters and similar subscription services. This has naturally caused a heated debate.