Hunton & Williams LLP writes:
On November 3, 2009, the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf (OLG Düsseldorf, Az. I-20 U 137/09) ruled on the duty to verify consent for email marketing with respect to purchased email addresses. According to the Court, a company that purchases email addresses for marketing purposes must verify customer consent itself – the company cannot rely on a data broker’s statement that it obtained the necessary consents.
This decision came in an interim injunction proceeding to cease unsolicited email marketing. The Court ruled in favor of the claimant, finding that the company failed to take necessary measures to verify consent.
Read more on their Privacy and Information Security Law Blog.