In its judgment of 13 November 2025 (case C-654\/23) the European Court of Justice ruled that, under certain conditions, businesses may send promotional newsletters even without the prior consent of users of a free service, provided that this service is economically linked to a paid service. In doing so, the Court has interpreted the term \u2018sale\u2019 under art.\u00a013(2) of the EU ePrivacy Directive more broadly than previously. This provision allows businesses to use the email addresses they obtained in connection with the sale of a product for advertising similar offers of their own, without prior consent.
The case concerned proceedings against a Romanian media company which sent a daily newsletter to users who had previously merely registered for a free account without having expressly consented to receiving advertising.
The ECJ nevertheless deemed the sending of the newsletter to be permissible, even though it classified the newsletter as direct marketing despite its informative content. According to the judgement, the email address had been obtained in connection with the \u2018sale\u2019 of a service. A \u2018sale\u2019 still requires payment, but this does not have to be provided by the users themselves. It is sufficient if the free service serves to promote paid offers from the same provider and its costs are factored into the price of those offers. The decisive factor was that the free account formed part of an overall paid offering: it allowed limited access to articles and the receipt of the newsletter for free, whilst further content remained subject to a charge. Under these circumstances, the Court found that the newsletter could be sent without prior consent.
The other statutory requirements remain unchanged. Only the provider\u2019s own products or services that are similar to those originally purchased may be advertised. Furthermore, users must not have objected to the use of their email address for advertising purposes, and they must be given a simple means of objecting both when their address is collected and in every individual message.
In practice, this means that simply registering for a free account can establish a sufficient basis for the sending of marketing emails if the requested free service is functionally part of a revenue-generating business model (for example, because it leads to optional paid offers). This broadens the scope for email marketing to a provider\u2019s entire existing user base beyond paid and consenting users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Dr. Lukas Mezger, UNVERZAGT Law)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In its judgment of 13 November 2025 (case C-654\/23) the European Court of Justice ruled that, under certain conditions, businesses may send<\/p>\n