Germany: why your first e-mail to a distributor is unlawful (§7 UWG) and what to do instead

Germany is the EU's largest market and the one where a manufacturer's usual first move, a short e-mail to a distributor, is unlawful. The rule sits in the Act against Unfair Competition (Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb, UWG), not in data protection law, and it makes no distinction between consumers and companies.

Putting it simply: under §7(2) no. 2 UWG, advertising by e-mail without the recipient's prior express consent is always an unreasonable nuisance. One e-mail is enough. A competitor, a trade association or the recipient itself can send you a formal warning letter (Abmahnung) with a demand for a signed undertaking and reimbursement of lawyer's fees. The lawful routes are a letter, a telephone call where you can show presumed consent, a trade fair, and inbound channels.

What §7 UWG says

§7(1) UWG prohibits any commercial practice that unreasonably harasses a market participant. §7(2) then lists cases that are always deemed unreasonable. Two matter here:

• No. 1, telephone: advertising calls to a consumer without prior express consent, or to "sonstige Marktteilnehmer" (other market participants, that is, businesses) "ohne deren zumindest mutmaßliche Einwilligung", without at least their presumed consent.
• No. 2, electronic mail: advertising "unter Verwendung ... elektronischer Post, ohne dass eine vorherige ausdrückliche Einwilligung des Adressaten vorliegt", using electronic mail without the addressee's prior express consent.

(Older texts, including some chamber-of-commerce guides, number these as nos. 2 and 3; a later amendment renumbered the list.) No. 2 has no B2B exception. A company's published address is an addressee like any other.

§7(3) UWG contains the only exception: you may e-mail an existing customer about your own similar goods if you obtained the address in connection with a sale, the customer has not objected, and you pointed out clearly at collection and in each message that they can object at any time. A distributor you have never sold to is not an existing customer.

An e-mail address printed on a letterhead, a business card or a website is not consent. The Cologne chamber of commerce (IHK Köln) puts it plainly: "Nicht ausreichend für die Annahme eines Einverständnisses ist nur die Angabe der E-Mail-Adresse in Briefköpfen oder auf der Visitenkarte."

One e-mail is enough

The Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) settled the "surely one message is fine" argument in 2009. In I ZR 218/07 (E-Mail-Werbung II) it held that "bereits die einmalige unverlangte Zusendung einer E-Mail mit Werbung" can constitute an unlawful interference with the recipient's established and operating business, actionable under §§ 823 and 1004 of the Civil Code.

The recipient company thus has its own claim against you, independent of the UWG, and "advertising" is read widely: any message aimed at promoting your goods counts, which in practice includes a friendly introduction with a catalogue link, and, in our reading, a message that only asks for permission to send information. As of October 2026 we could not point to a BGH decision on a pure consent request; do not rely on the distinction.

The Abmahnung machinery

Who can act is set out in §8(3) UWG: competitors who sell goods or services "in nicht unerheblichem Maße und nicht nur gelegentlich", registered trade associations, qualified consumer bodies, and chambers of industry and commerce. §13 UWG requires a warning letter before court, specifying the sender, the violation and any cost claim; if the warning is justified, the recipient must reimburse the necessary costs. The standard demand is a cease-and-desist undertaking with a contractual penalty for each future breach.

IHK Köln notes that because parties before the regional courts must be represented by lawyers, "das Kostenrisiko relativ hoch" is.

Lawful alternatives

Letter

Postal advertising to businesses is permitted. IHK Köln: "Werbung per Brief bzw. Werbewurfsendung ... ist grundsätzlich zulässig", subject only to respecting an objection once made. A one-page letter in German, addressed to the managing director or purchasing lead, with a concrete reason for writing and a way to reply, is the standard first contact in this market. Put your full identity on it and invite the recipient to say if they want no further post.

Telephone, with presumed consent only

§7(2) no. 1 allows a call to a business where there is at least presumed consent. IHK Köln describes the test: concrete factual circumstances must allow one to presume an objective interest of the person called in the specific advertising ("auf Grund konkreter tatsächlicher Umstände ein sachliches Interesse ... vermutet werden kann"). A general interest in "new suppliers" is not enough. Evidence that the distributor already sells your category is the kind of circumstance the test is about, but it is judged case by case and strictly. Call once, be brief, note the basis for the call, and do not follow up by e-mail unless asked.

Trade fairs and personal meetings

A conversation at a fair is not electronic mail. If a buyer asks you to send the catalogue, your e-mail is requested, not unsolicited. Write the request down (date, fair, name, what was asked for) at the time; a business card alone is not that record.

LinkedIn, XING and contact forms

The term "electronic mail" is read broadly: the Court of Justice held in C-102/20 that advertising placed in an e-mail inbox is electronic mail under the ePrivacy Directive. German practitioners report lower-court decisions applying §7 UWG to sales messages on business networks; as of October 2026 we could not verify those against a court-published text, so assume the rule applies. A connection request with no sales content is a different matter from a pitch in a message. A website contact form delivers your text as an e-mail to the company; we could not find an official source treating forms more leniently, so treat them as e-mail.

Inbound

A German-language product page with a proper Impressum, listings with the relevant buying groups and trade associations, trade-press coverage and references all create the situation in which the distributor writes to you, after which e-mail is lawful in both directions.

Where this leaves a foreign manufacturer

The cost of getting Germany wrong is not a fine from a data protection authority; it is a lawyer's letter from a company you wanted as a partner. That is why Cresques marks Germany as a market where the first contact is not an e-mail; the first message Cresques drafts for Germany, in German with an English version, is written for a letter, a contact form or LinkedIn, and the market view shows which distributors already sell your category so that the message has a concrete reason behind it.

What this means for a manufacturer

• Do not send a cold e-mail to a German company, and do not ask for permission by e-mail either.
• Lead with a letter in German. Follow up with a second letter or a call where you can state the specific reason this distributor should be interested.
• Record every requested contact (fair, call, reply) so that your subsequent e-mail is demonstrably solicited.
• Keep sales content out of network messages until the other side engages.
• Expect the §7(3) existing-customer exception only after the first order, and only if you set up the opt-out notice correctly at that point.