Kassel Local Court: Confirmation Email In Double Opt-in Process Not Spam

In its judgment of 26 April 2022 (docket no. 435 C 1051/21), the Kassel Local Court decided that sending a mere confirmation email as part of a double opt-in process (DOI) for subscribing to a newsletter is not an unauthorised advertising mailing. In this case, the defendant sent the plaintiff an email in which he would have had to confirm his email address in order to confirm his subscription to the newsletter. The plaintiff considered this to be a legal violation as he had not subscribed to the newsletter.

Conclusion: Unlike the Berlin Regional Court (decision of 19 September 2019, docket no. 15 O 348/19) or previously the Munich Court of Appeals (judgment of 27 September 2012, docket no. 29 U 1682/12), the Kassel Local Court does not consider a mere confirmation email to be an unacceptable nuisance. This decision bolsters the use of the DOI procedure by advertisers in the context of sending newsletters and also demonstrates that DOI is a practical way to prove