German Court Delivers Significant Ruling For Spammers

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

20 January 2005

A German court has issued a ruling which may unwittingly have opened the door for spammers to send unsolicited e-mails legally.

According to reports in the national media, the case, which was heard by the Higher Regional Court in Karlsruhe, centred on e-mails sent by a former academic assistant at a Baden-Württemberg University, who left his employment there after a falling out, but remained in contact with friends at the University via e-mail, which made use of the institution's mail server.

Unbeknownst to the ex-employee or his friends, however, the university authorities made the decision to filter out all incoming and outgoing e-mails in which his name was mentioned.

Delivering its verdict on Monday, the Higher Regional Court stated that given that e-mail content is considered confidential under German law, filtering electronic communications in this way is illegal, except in cases where a virus attack has been threatened.

Observers have suggested, however, that the ruling may have a significant adverse impact on spam prevention, which frequently relies on filtering by content.

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