Imagine you run a dental practice and suddenly a company calls wanting to buy precious metals from you - just like that, without you ever having signalled your interest. A case heard by the Federal Administrative Court in early 2025 was precisely about such unsolicited advertising calls. The central question: Are companies allowed to simply access publicly accessible telephone numbers and call potential business partners directly?
A company that buys used precious metals from dental practices had done just that: it accessed business directories such as the Yellow Pages, collected numbers and launched telephone campaigns. The responsible data protection authority in Saarland had already stopped this in 2017 - without the consent of those affected, this was a clear violation of applicable data protection regulations. However, with the introduction of the GDPR, the company was hoping for a new legal basis: the so-called "legitimate interest" from Article 6. However, both the Administrative Court and later the Federal Administrative Court made it clear that this alone was not enough.Der Knackpunkt liegt im
Interplay between data protection law and competition law. In certain B2B scenarios, a telephone call may be permitted without prior consent - for example, if it can be assumed that there is a genuine business interest. However, in this case, the court did not see any typical or substantial interest on the part of the medical practices in the sale of precious metals. This meant that there was no ‘presumed consent’ - and the call was legally inadmissible.
The original purpose for which the telephone numbers were made public - namely to establish medical contact - also played a role. Subsequent use for advertising purposes constitutes misappropriation, which is not permitted under the GDPR without express consent.
The bottom line is that anyone who wants to make cold calls in the B2B sector must check very carefully whether this is legally tenable. Without clear consent or an obvious legitimate interest, there is a risk of being categorised as unreasonable harassment - and therefore legal trouble. It is therefore safest to obtain prior consent, even in the business sector - and save yourself costly legal proceedings and warnings.
Source: https://www.datenschutz-notizen.de