List privilege

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The list privilege was an exception in German data protection law , which allowed personal data to be used for advertising purposes and for the purposes of market and opinion research and passed on to third parties. It was thus, among other things, the legal basis for address trading .

The basis of the list privilege was § 28 Paragraph 3 Sentence 2 No. 1 and § 29 Paragraph 2 Sentence 2 of the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG). Numbers 2 and 3 privileged job-related and fundraising , which are not subject to the additional restrictions of no.1. Accordingly, it is permitted to save address lists with name, address, year of birth, occupation and another characteristic, to pass them on to third parties and to use them for advertising, especially in direct marketing , and market research. The consent of the person concerned was not required. However, the use of data is not permitted if it can be assumed that it violates the legitimate interests of the person concerned. This was particularly the case if the person concerned objected to the use of his data in accordance with Section 28 (4) BDSG ( opt-out ).

On December 10, 2008, the Federal Cabinet decided on a draft to amend the BDSG. According to this draft, which should come into force on July 1, 2009, the listing privilege should have been abolished. Data could then only have been passed on and used for advertising if the data subject had expressly consented to this ( opt-in ). A transition period of three years was planned for the changeover.

The proposed law was sharply criticized on this point by various industry associations. The German Dialog Marketing Association (DDV) and the Federal Association of the German Mail Order Trade (bvh) feared a burden on the economy, an impairment of competition and disadvantages for consumers. The Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers (BDZV) argued that the acquisition of new subscribers depends to over 60 percent on the readership by letter, which is based on the list privilege. As a result, the change to the BDSG threatened to endanger the diversity of the press in Germany, warned BDZV and the Association of German Magazine Publishers (VDZ).

The Central Association of the German Advertising Industry (ZAW) expected economic damage to the advertising industry in the amount of five billion euros.

On the other hand, over 80 percent of Germans felt harassed by advertising. 95 percent said that data should only be passed on with prior consent. The consumer association saw the abolition of the list privilege as an important step towards realizing consumer sovereignty in data protection .

The law to amend the Federal Data Protection Act, which was passed on July 3, 2009 and came into force on April 1, 2010 , finally refrained from abolishing the list privilege. However, the new section 28 (3) sentence 4 BDSG now required that the body that collected the data for the first time had to be clearly identified in the advertising .

On May 25, 2018, the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force. The Federal Data Protection Act was revised for this purpose. The list privilege was no longer applicable.

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Act amending the Federal Data Protection Act 2010 - justification, wording, changes
  2. ↑ BDSG amendments from May 29, July 2 and 3, 2009 compared to February 5, 2009
  3. ↑ Act to adapt data protection law to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and to implement Directive (EU) 2016/680 (Data Protection Adaptation and Implementation Act EU - DSAnpUG-EU) , accessed on August 16, 2018.