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German Court: "Sharing" Your Amazon Purchases Is Spamming (reuters.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the keep-it-to-yourself dept.

An anonymous reader writes: A court in Germany has ruled that the 'Share' links which Amazon provides to customers directly after making a purchase at the site are unlawful. The "Share" functionality provides buttons which allow the consumer to signal a new purchase via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or email. The court, ratifying an earlier decision made at a lower court, declared that emails initiated via the Share function constitute "unsolicited advertising and unreasonable harassment."

2 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. Advertising is not a freedom of speech issue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Seems like freedom of speech to me

    All spammers could claim the same "freedom of speech" defence.

    Fortunately the world is not quite stupid enough to accept that as a valid excuse for what is very clearly unsolicited advertising.

  2. Re:Seems like freedom of speech to me by stephanruby · · Score: 3, Informative

    What do the emails look like? Is there any "speech" from the user, or do they just plug in an email address and amazon does all the "speaking"?

    I assume it is like most commercial Share buttons.

    Amazon pre-fills the form pretending to speak on behalf of the buyer, but that person can edit that text however he/she wants.