A German court has declared Amazon's "share" feature, which encourages Amazon customers to share links to Amazon products with their contacts, as unlawful. The Amazon “share” feature invites customers to share a product via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and most controversially, e-mail.
"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."
It's no surprise that enterprising marketing practices and the law are butting heads more frequently. The ruling of this case is reminiscent of an earlier decision that took place in 2012, in which the German Federal Court of Justice ruled that Facebook's "Friend Finder" feature did not provide adequate privacy protection for users. The feature essentially allowed Facebook users to use tools provided by the social network to reach out to promote content and services which would require the non-users to sign up.
But regulatory crackdowns haven't only happened across the pond. Here in the States, LinkedIn's aggressive marketing ploys (i.e., its "Add Connections" service) have landed it square in the middle of a class action lawsuit. And rightly so.
Frankly, I think these sorts of decisions are setting the right tone. I'm curious to see where this all will head.