Address trading

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This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

Under address trading refers to the buying and selling of mailing addresses of potential customers, according to the respective requirements by advertising companies are pre-filtered and refined. Address trading is part of the direct marketing workflow . The aim of direct marketing is to identify a recipient as a potential buyer and to address it personally so that he or she expresses his interest in the company and reacts to the advertising message ( response ). The postal addresses of the potential buyers are required for this. These addresses can be purchased through address dealers (also address brokers, list brokers) .

In Germany, address trading is regulated, among other things, with the right to informational self-determination . It is a basis for action against unwanted advertising (see also Robinson list ). Data for address trading may also come from generally accessible sources (Section 29 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 No. 2 BDSG). Generally accessible are data that are intended and, depending on the form of their presentation, suitable for conveying information to a group of people who cannot be individually determined. It does not matter whether access is only granted for a fee. Examples of publicly accessible sources are newspapers, information on websites, address and telephone directories, and trade and association registers.

Types of address trading and address processing

Companies can acquire addresses for advertising purposes for one-time or unrestricted use and integration into their own databases. There are models in which the addresses are not given directly to the advertising company, but a " trustee ", e.g. B. the lettershop , brings together the addresses and the advertising information without the advertising company itself becoming aware of the address list. Only when the addressed customer reacts does the advertising company find out the address in question. This concept is also known as address rental . Address dealers offer both self-acquired addresses and third-party addresses on the market. The external addresses come from the customer databases of z. B. Mail order companies who can give their customer addresses to third parties within the scope of the list privilege for advertising purposes in compliance with the requirements of the Federal Data Protection Act . The consent of those affected is not required, Section 28 BDSG.

The quality of the addresses can be adapted to the requirements of the advertising company using filter criteria. The filter criteria are e.g. B. hobbies, geographical restrictions, age, previous shopping history ( customer behavior ), payment behavior and the social classification of the area of ​​the residential address.

Various service providers also offer the possibility of data comparison. The customer does not acquire new addresses, but increases the quality of the existing address inventory. In addition to the relocation addresses, embargo addresses, dubious customers, those who refuse to advertise (so-called Robinsons ) and duplicates can be found and cleared.

In address trading, the trading of private addresses must be clearly differentiated from trading in company addresses, which is often mixed up by laypeople in practice. For example, trading in company addresses, especially legal persons, is not subject to the GDPR.

Connection between address trading, credit reports, scoring

Largest market participants and activities in the areas of address trading, debt collection, scoring, personal identification

The areas such as address trading with the aim of direct marketing, credit reports and scoring are closely linked. The following fictitious practical example shows the connections, coffee can be replaced by more sensitive products such as insurance and the companies involved by banks, insurance companies or health insurance companies.

Fictional example

Person A regularly purchases high quality coffee online. The provider B analyzes his address lists and sells address lists of buyers of high-quality coffee to the neighboring department store C. This then sends person A advertisements about high-quality coffee machines. A finally decides to buy a coffee machine and they agree to pay in installments.

This in turn is sent to credit agencies such as B. Schufa reported. Depending on how well A handles the installments, that affects your credit scoring . If person A makes further purchases elsewhere, stating their address and in z. B. Consents to Schufa queries, which usually takes place, or concludes other contracts, a positive scoring value is a condition for the conclusion of the contract or the terms of payment.

After a while, A moves. Department store C would like to offer A the successor model of the coffee machine, but no longer has a current address. First of all, Department Store C asks Deutsche Post for the relocation address. A did not report there, however, so department store C does not receive any new information there. C now turns to another service provider D, who then permanently examines the address databases of other mail-order companies to determine whether a new address of person A is known or will be known.

After some time, A orders a book from an online bookstore E via the Internet at the new address. D's address research system is activated and department store C receives the new address from A.

Since person A has meanwhile moved to a residential area with high unemployment and low purchasing power ( geoscoring ), A only receives an offer for the new coffee machine to purchase against prepayment. The installment payment is no longer granted to A because the credit risk is too high.

Unless the new address of A would not have known about their book purchase, even that would have any registration office ( Registration Act ) helped.

Market development

After an analysis of the Federal Cartel Office in 2005 estimated the market volume was about 770 million euros .

Arvato / Bertelsmann sold customer addresses for Weltbild in March 2012 and for the mail order company Klingel in July 2012 . In August 2012, Deutsche Post Direkt gave Schober access to 37 million consumer addresses for sale as part of the address trade "Deal for the future: Deutsche Post Direkt and Schober Information Group cooperate on consumer addresses".

Address trading with private addresses within the framework of the GDPR (EU-DSGVO)

In the 34th Activity Report 2018, the State Data Protection Officer of Baden-Württemberg deals with the topic of address trading and states that "Voices, above all from the advertising industry, according to which more or less nothing legally changed when the GDPR came into effect [...] confidently as wishful thinking can be designated. "

In the area of ​​address trading, it can be assumed that “the person concerned […] does not [assume] that a company with whom he has business contact sells or rents his customer data to other companies that are completely foreign to him and he does so from there suddenly receives unwanted advertising. In addition, the person concerned - [...] has a very strong interest in ensuring that his customer data does not degenerate into a commodity that is traded without limits and over which he no longer has any influence. From the point of view of transparency (Art. 5 (1) (a) GDPR), the data subject has an overriding interest in remaining master (or wife) of their data. This applies all the more to enriched address data, which regularly depicts a fairly specific personality profile of the person concerned "

It was also determined that reading out the data from an online imprint for the purpose of advertising is not permitted. Although these data are generally accessible, they are not given voluntarily, but due to the legal obligation to identify providers in accordance with. § 5 TMG and § 55 Abs. 2 RStV published. However, it is not permitted to read the data from an online imprint for the purpose of advertising. In the absence of voluntary publication, the weighing of interests acc. Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR regularly means that the advertising use of data collected in this way is not permitted. To avoid this data being used for advertising purposes, a website provider can, as a precaution, include an advertising objection in its imprint.

First judgments within the framework of the new EU GDPR

First courts take action with regard to the EU GDPR and take action against misconduct by address sellers. The President of the Office for the Protection of Personal Data (UODO) imposed a fine on Bisnode Polska in the amount of more than 943,000 złoty, the equivalent of around 220,000 €, for failure to comply with the information obligations under Article 14 GDPR. The judgment was later overturned due to procedural errors, as the amount of the fine was largely determined by the specific number of data records affected. However, the office did not provide any verifiable evidence for this, but simply assumed 6 million affected data, which Bisnode Polska denied.

Corporate address trading is treated differently than home address trading

In address trading, it is important to distinguish between trading with company addresses and trading with private addresses. The GDPR specifically does not protect any personal data of legal persons, as Art. 1 Para. 1 GDPR expressly states: "This regulation contains provisions on the protection of natural persons in the processing of personal data and the free movement of such data". The last doubts are finally dispelled by sentence 2 of recital 14: "This regulation does not apply to the processing of personal data of legal persons and in particular companies founded as legal persons, including the name, legal form or contact details of the legal person". In addition, the last part of sentence 2 is also interesting for trading in company addresses. This expressly states that the processing of the contact data is not protected either. This means that email addresses, telephone and fax numbers, internet and social media addresses as well as company contact data of company employees are not protected.

Private market participants

The following address dealers have been active on the market in Germany for at least 10 years (alphabetical order):

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See decision of the Bundeskartellamt B 9 - 32/05 (PDF; 54 kB), pp. 12, 40.
  2. ↑ The State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information Baden-Württemberg: Advertising and Address Trading. The State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information Baden-Württemberg, May 2, 2017, accessed on July 9, 2019 .
  3. ↑ it-recht-kanzlei.de
  4. ↑ a b Art. 1 GDPR - Subject matter and objectives - General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Accessed April 28, 2020 (German).
  5. ↑ a b Recital 14 - General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Accessed April 28, 2020 (German).
  6. ↑ Address trading and data trading - overview ( Memento from November 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Decision of the Federal Cartel Office B 9 - 32/05 (PDF; 54 kB), pp. 11, 39.
  8. ↑ Press report on the cooperation
  9. ↑ What is so special about Weltbild Score +? - AZ Direkt sales page ( Memento from May 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ↑ http://www.behaben-ohne-ende.de/media/pdfs/az-katalog_final_screen.pdf (link not available)
  11. ↑ OnetoOne, report on address marketing ( Memento from June 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ Press release Schober ( Memento from November 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ 34th Data Protection Activity Report of the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information Baden-Württemberg 2018. P. 116 , accessed on July 11, 2019 .
  14. ↑ 34th Data Protection Activity Report of the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information Baden-Württemberg 2018. P. 119 , accessed on July 11, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision: Guidance from the supervisory authorities on the processing of personal data for direct marketing purposes under the application of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). November 1, 2018, p. 11 , accessed July 24, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Data protection news. In: www.datenschutzverein.de. German Association for Data Protection, September 1, 2019, accessed on February 16, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Dr. Bahr: Administrative Court Warsaw: GDPR fine iHv. 220,000.00 against Bisnode Polska due to unauthorized address trading repealed. Retrieved June 2, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Decision of the Federal Cartel Office B 9 - 32/05 (PDF; 54 kB), pp. 12, 40.
  19. ↑ Address dealer overview of the founder's dictionary. Retrieved February 18, 2020 .
  20. ^ Website of Address-Base GmbH & Co. KG. Archived from the original ; accessed on February 18, 2020 .
  21. ↑ website of the Data Lovers AG. Retrieved February 18, 2020 .
  22. ↑ QUADRESS GmbH website. Retrieved February 20, 2020 .