Unacceptable Harassment or Permissible Marketing?

In its decision from 15.02.2018 (Az.: 29U2799/17), the Higher Regional Court in Munich needed to deal with the question of whether the sending of a marketing email is permissible from the operator of a dating site to members who had registered without charge. The marketing email was sent without the express consent of the members who had registered without charge. As a result,it needed to be decided whether this usage of email addresses for marketing purposes was permissible according to §7 Para. 3 UWG (an existing customer relationship). The legal interpretations presented in the court’s decision are not undisputed and conflict at least in part with other court decisions.