German court: an Impressum e-mail address must accept mail; an auto-rejecting address breaches section 5 of the Digital Services Act (DDG)

German court: an Impressum e-mail address must accept mail; an auto-rejecting address breaches section 5 of the Digital Services Act (DDG)

2 October 2026 — The Kammergericht in Berlin, the city's higher regional court, has ruled that a business may not list an e-mail address in its website Impressum, the legally required provider details, and then automatically refuse the messages sent to it. The case was brought by the Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (vzbv), Germany's federation of consumer organisations, against Amazon EU S.à r.l., and the judgment of 11 August 2026 (case 5 UKl 1/26) was reported by heise online on 2 October.

Not yet independently verified. The judgment is a default judgment: the defendant did not respond or appear. That it is now final comes from the consumer federation as reported by heise; we have not read the judgment text, which the federation publishes. A default judgment carries less weight as a precedent than a contested ruling. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

What the court decided

According to the report, the Impressum address answered every message with an automatic reply saying it did not accept incoming mail and directed senders elsewhere. The court found that this breaches section 5 of the Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz (DDG), which requires operators of commercial online services to provide easily recognisable, directly accessible details that allow quick electronic contact and direct, efficient communication.

The court drew a clear line. Businesses may use automated tools or chatbots to process incoming messages, and they do not have to answer every message sent through that channel. But they may not refuse to receive messages at all: a mailbox that rejects mail does not provide the direct contact the law requires.

The judgment was a default judgment, because the defendant neither responded to the claim in time nor appeared at the hearing in August. The vzbv says it is now final, as no objection was filed within two weeks.

Who is affected

Any business with a commercial website or online service aimed at users in Germany, including software and SaaS vendors, must publish an Impressum. Many route the listed address to a no-reply mailbox or an auto-responder that tells people to use a web form or a customer portal instead. This ruling says that approach is not enough.

What to do

1. Send a test e-mail to the address in your German Impressum and check that it is accepted and lands in a mailbox someone monitors.
2. If you use an auto-reply, make it an acknowledgement that points to faster channels, not a refusal of the message.
3. Check that the address in your Impressum is not a no-reply address and is not filtered so aggressively that legitimate messages bounce.
4. Keep your support form or portal, but treat it as an addition to the e-mail address, not a replacement.
5. Agencies and website-builder vendors: review the Impressum templates you provide to German customers.

Why it matters for buyers

Consumer federations in Germany can bring injunction claims, and competitors can send formal warning letters over Impressum defects. A cheap fix now avoids both. The ruling also matters for vendors whose own contact routes are fully automated: German law still expects a channel where a message can actually be delivered.

Sources

• Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband: Klage gegen Amazon EU S.à r.l. (case 5 UKl 1/26, Kammergericht Berlin) — 12 August 2026
• heise online: Schlappe für Amazon: Kammergericht verbietet Fake-Mailadresse im Impressum — 2 October 2026