German court says Amazon e-mail 'share' function unlawful

Frankfurt: A German court has declared unlawful a feature that encourages Amazon customers to share links to products of the online shop with their contacts, confirming the ruling of a lower court.

The Amazon "share" feature invites customers to share a product via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter or Pintrest.

The court said on Monday that sharing by e-mail without approval of the recipient was illegal. It is "unsolicited advertising and unreasonable harassment," the regional court in Hamm said, confirming the ruling of a lower court in Arnsberg.

A competitor brought the case against one of Amazon’s resellers. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The ruling comes after Germany's highest court ruled earlier this month that a similar feature that encourages Facebook users to market the social media network to their contacts as unlawful.

At the time, the Federation of German Consumer Organisations, which brought the Facebook case to court, had said the ruling would have implications for other services in Germany that use similar forms of advertising.