When are mailings to shopping cart abandoners legal?
Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2025 4:40 am
How do you properly deal with shopping cart abandoners?
Retargeting, but properly
The competition authority recently issued warnings to various online shop operators who had informed their customers by email that they had not completed a purchase. We provide information on the legal procedure for dealing with abandoned shopping cart emails.
Put the product in the shopping cart and then go to checkout." This is how online shopping works in most cases. But customers do not always actually complete their purchase; the products remain in the shopping cart. The rate of shopping cart abandonment is high and mailings with information about unfinished purchases are a popular way to counteract this and save sales.
Challenge: Email advertising and data protection
Now the competition authority writes that these reminders lebanon phone number data are "inadmissible under competition law and more than questionable under data protection law" . The authors refer to inadmissible and annoying email advertising according to Section 7 Paragraph 1, Paragraph 2 No. 3 of the Act against Unfair Competition (UWG) if the consumer has not previously given consent. They also refer to data protection law, which states that the collection, processing and use of the email address is only permitted if a legal provision allows this or the person concerned has consented (Section 4 Paragraph 1 BDSG). In the opinion of the competition authority, this consent is not implicit in the case of shopping cart abandonment. Shop operators can only use the email address for advertising purposes if a valid opt-in has already been made or an active business relationship exists (Section 7 Paragraph 3, No. 2 UWG), which is also not the case according to the article.
Two approaches to complying with the law
Of course, the reminder mailings must comply with applicable law, but shop operators still have two options to actively win back their customers:
1. If a registration for newsletters (via double opt-in ) and other e-mails also includes abandoned cart emails , the operator is acting legally, since the advertising emails are not unwanted and the recipient has consented to the collection, use and processing of the e-mail address.
2. Another legally compliant solution is to write to recipients who have recently purchased a similar product, as an active customer relationship then exists according to UWG ยง7, paragraph 3. These two options should include a large number of shopping cart abandoners whose email addresses are known and who are therefore eligible for a recovery email in the first place.
Retargeting, but properly
The competition authority recently issued warnings to various online shop operators who had informed their customers by email that they had not completed a purchase. We provide information on the legal procedure for dealing with abandoned shopping cart emails.
Put the product in the shopping cart and then go to checkout." This is how online shopping works in most cases. But customers do not always actually complete their purchase; the products remain in the shopping cart. The rate of shopping cart abandonment is high and mailings with information about unfinished purchases are a popular way to counteract this and save sales.
Challenge: Email advertising and data protection
Now the competition authority writes that these reminders lebanon phone number data are "inadmissible under competition law and more than questionable under data protection law" . The authors refer to inadmissible and annoying email advertising according to Section 7 Paragraph 1, Paragraph 2 No. 3 of the Act against Unfair Competition (UWG) if the consumer has not previously given consent. They also refer to data protection law, which states that the collection, processing and use of the email address is only permitted if a legal provision allows this or the person concerned has consented (Section 4 Paragraph 1 BDSG). In the opinion of the competition authority, this consent is not implicit in the case of shopping cart abandonment. Shop operators can only use the email address for advertising purposes if a valid opt-in has already been made or an active business relationship exists (Section 7 Paragraph 3, No. 2 UWG), which is also not the case according to the article.
Two approaches to complying with the law
Of course, the reminder mailings must comply with applicable law, but shop operators still have two options to actively win back their customers:
1. If a registration for newsletters (via double opt-in ) and other e-mails also includes abandoned cart emails , the operator is acting legally, since the advertising emails are not unwanted and the recipient has consented to the collection, use and processing of the e-mail address.
2. Another legally compliant solution is to write to recipients who have recently purchased a similar product, as an active customer relationship then exists according to UWG ยง7, paragraph 3. These two options should include a large number of shopping cart abandoners whose email addresses are known and who are therefore eligible for a recovery email in the first place.