> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.orbit.devotel.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Germany SMS & Voice Marketing Rules (UWG + BNetzA)
> Germany's marketing-SMS posture expanded from the country-requirements matrix: UWG §7 opt-in consent under German case law, BNetzA documentation for number purchase, the German keyword vocabulary (STOPP plus verb forms), and the quiet-hours defaults mapped to the Orbit surfaces you already own.
# Germany SMS & Voice Marketing Rules (UWG + BNetzA)
Germany (`DE`) is Orbit's largest EEA market by regulatory documentation —
BNetzA's document rules hit almost every German number purchase, and German
law (UWG §7) treats unsolicited electronic marketing as an unlawful nuisance
rather than a simple opt-out regime. This page expands the DE row of the
[country-requirements matrix](/compliance/country-requirements) so you can
close the German items deliberately instead of re-reading one JSON blob per
launch.
Germany is a **tenant-owned burden**. Orbit never mandates your posture —
it keeps the [country-rules reference](/compliance/country-requirements)
that feeds the send-time gates, and it gives you the consent ledger,
quiet-hours, and opt-out surfaces below. The legal posture is yours.
This page is documentation, not legal advice. German marketing law
(Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb, UWG §7) is enforced against the
sender, and BNetzA's numbering requirements are set by the regulator —
have counsel review your consent capture and STOP handling; Orbit
supplies the surfaces.
***
## Accepted sender classes for Germany
Read the DE row of `GET /compliance/country-rules?country=DE` (see
[Country Compliance Requirements](/compliance/country-requirements)).
Consolidated, consistent with the
[compliance profile](/compliance/compliance-profile-assembly) seed
(`country_code: DE`, `alphaSupported: true`, `registrationRequired: none`):
| Rule | DE value | What it means for you |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Sender types | `alphanumeric`, `long_code` | Both accepted. Alphanumeric sender IDs are dynamic in DE — no pre-registration is required for SMS (BNetzA's numbering rules focus on voice number assignment and local presence, not SMS sender registration). |
| Registration | `none` | The send-time gate does not hold DE on a missing registration. Register anyway for stability — the dynamic alphanumeric regime on an unregistered sender is subject to carrier relabeling — but this is a deliverability posture, not a BNetzA gate. |
| Marketing consent | UWG §7 — opt-in required | German marketing SMS (and any outbound marketing call treated as a "commercial communication") is opt-in, not opt-out. Consent must exist before dispatch. Record it in the consent ledger with `sms` scope. See the UWG section below. |
| No-send windows | BNetzA guidance — phone traffic 21:00–09:00 recipient local | German BNetzA guidance (Gesprächsalleinige Werbung) treats marketing calls outside roughly 21:00–09:00 as unlikely to have prior consent and harmful for consumers. Orbit's platform default quiet-hours window (21:00–09:00) already covers this — see the quiet-hours section. |
| Opt-out keyword | German STOPP family mandatory | Every DE marketing message must accept the German STOPP vocabulary; the alias table maps `STOPP`, `ABBESTELLEN`, `ABMELDEN`, `ENDE`, `ABBRECHEN` to your suppression ledger. See the keyword section and [Opt-Out Keyword Alias Table](/compliance/opt-out-keyword-alias-table). |
***
## UWG §7 — when German marketing consent is required
The Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb (UWG), Section 7, is the
German unfair-competition statute that governs when a commercial
communication via phone or SMS counts as "unacceptable nuisance"
(general unlawful advertising).
**The rule (as German courts apply it):**
* Marketing SMS, marketing calls, and any directional commercial
communication (email, RCS, WhatsApp) require the recipient's prior
consent to be lawful. Consent must be affirmative — German courts
treat silence, pre-ticked boxes, or an inferred-from-quiet-hours
assumption as insufficient.
* Post-court practice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) treats an opt-out claim
as valid only when it follows an ex-ante consent; i.e. "you can
unsubscribe later" does not rescue an unsolicited marketing send. A
minimal pre-consent "brand teaser" — a short disclosure-only message
that identifies your brand and asks for consent rather than sending
the full marketing payload — is the compliant fallback when prior
consent cannot be demonstrated.
* Double-opt-in (DOI) — a confirmation step that proves the recipient
actually completed the opt-in — is not a German statutory requirement,
but German case law treats DOI as the only reliable evidence chain
courts have consistently accepted when consent is disputed. Orbit's
[Double-Opt-In](/compliance/double-opt-in) surface exists to supply
that chain.
**Tenant-owned controls that map to the UWG rule:**
| UWG obligation | Orbit surface |
| ----------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Prior consent before marketing send | [Consent Management](/compliance/consent-management) — a consent record with `sms` (or `voice` / `whatsapp`) scope before dispatch; German posture rides on the [GDPR Posture Guide](/compliance/gdpr-posture-guide) under Articles 6 and 85 GDPR. |
| DOI evidence chain | [Double-Opt-In](/compliance/double-opt-in) — the two-step confirmation record courts treat as reliable. |
| Consent ledger retention | [Archival Export](/compliance/archival-export) — export the ledger with timestamps, prompt history, and the consent-granted-at UTC timestamp. |
***
## BNetzA requirements for phone-number purchase (Germany)
Germany's Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur, BNetzA) is the
regulator whose numbering plan drives the DE documentation set. When
you buy a German phone number (especially a local number), the Orbit
purchase flow will require DE-specific compliance-profile documents.
According to the [Numbers Regulatory Preview](/numbers/regulatory-preview)
page's DE branch (preview call `GET /numbers/regulatory-preview?country=DE`),
the platform returns the strictest combined DE requirement set — a preview
that includes identity proof, address proof, and business documents
(`document_roles: ["id_proof", "address_proof", "business_doc"]`) for a
local DE number. A tenant's `compliance_profile_satisfies` flag tells you
whether your existing [Compliance Profile](/compliance/compliance-profile-assembly)
already satisfies those roles; the requirements themselves are
tenant-agnostic.
The [Documents KYC](/compliance/documents-kyc) page's Germany note also
anchors Germany as one of the heavier national documentation sets
(alongside France): BNetzA's doc-age expectation — "ID or business
documents must be recent on purchase" — is why a `cprof_*` that was valid
last month may fail DE the next. Keep your documents refreshed.
***
## Quiet-hours defaults under German BNetzA guidance
German law leaves the *per-day* window mostly to case law — but BNetzA
guidance and German an-sending precedent converge on a 21:00–09:00
recipient-local window as the safe zone where unsolicited marketing
traffic is most likely to produce complaints or be judged a violation
of UWG.
Orbit's configuration surfaces for this:
| Surface | Behaviour for DE |
| ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Tenant quiet hours (deliberate) | [Quiet-Hours Configuration](/guides/quiet-hours-configuration) — opt-in tenant control, default **OFF / fail-open**; configure it covering Europe/Berlin 21:00–09:00 if you want the platform to hold DE marketing sends. Nothing in Orbit defaults this on. |
| Platform default (fallback) | When no tenant window is set, drip/journey sends inherit the platform default 21:00–09:00 recipient local — matching BNetzA guidance in DE. This is a *fallback*, not a tenant guarantee. |
| Compliance-profile posture | [Compliance Profile Use Cases](/compliance/compliance-profile-use-cases) — where DE-specific business cases tie quiet-hours defaults into the same profile you use for BNetzA documents. |
Unlike the FR statutory 20:00–08:00 convention, the German 21:00–09:00
window is not surfaced as hard law in the country-rules response — it is
a BNetzA guidance default Orbit inherits. If your counsel requires a
different window, set it as tenant quiet hours deliberately.
***
## German-language STOP keyword handling
The [Opt-Out Keyword Alias Table](/compliance/opt-out-keyword-alias-table)
includes the entire German marketing-opt-out vocabulary: `STOPP`,
`ABBESTELLEN`, `ABMELDEN`, `ENDE`, `ABBRECHEN` in the opt-out group,
plus the opt-in (`START`, `JA`, `ANMELDEN`, `ABONNIEREN`) counterpart.
German keyword matching is locale-insensitive case-folding with Unicode
normalisation — so a recipient replying `stopp` or `Stopp.` matches
the same opt-out rule.
When a German opt-out fires, the suppression entry it writes is
channel-scoped to `all`, not `sms` — the same propagation behaviour as
the English `STOP` alias. That means a German STOPP knocks a recipient
off SMS, WhatsApp, and RCS simultaneously. This is deliberate: German
law treats any of the German-language aliases as a revocation of the
UWG opt-in, and the most permissible posture is "stop everything."
The seeded German rules are incomplete only if you have pruned them in
the dashboard. Under **Messages → SMS → Opt-out Rules**, add any missing
German variant back — the existing seeded set behaves identically to the
canonical German vocabulary per country.
***
## Posture-FAQ tuple for Germany
When you answer "what does Germany need?" against the
[Posture FAQ](/compliance/posture-faq), the DE-specific tuple is:
* **Default quiet-hours window**: platform default 21:00–09:00
(fail-open fallback only).
* **Opt-in required before marketing**: yes (UWG §7, GDPR-aware).
* **Sender registration level**: `none` (no BNetzA gate, carrier
deliverability posture).
* **Opt-out keyword family**: German `STOPP` + verb-form aliases
(`ABBESTELLEN`, `ABMELDEN`, `ENDE`, `ABBRECHEN`).
* **Documentation burden for number purchase**: heavy (identity proof,
address proof, business document).
***
## DE launch checklist
Narrowed from the generic launch checklist in
[Country Compliance Requirements](/compliance/country-requirements) to
the DE row:
Call `GET /compliance/country-rules?country=DE` and read the DE row's
`sender_types`, `registration`, `content_restrictions`, and
`stop_requirement`.
Alphanumeric Sender ID (dynamic, no pre-registration) or a long code —
both are accepted in DE.
Registration is `none` — the send-time gate does not block DE on this.
Register anyway (`compliance/sender-id-registration`) if you need
stable alphanumeric identity across carriers. BNetzA's rules on
document age (see Documents-KYC) apply only to number purchase, not
sender registration.
Record a consent entry with `sms` scope before any DE marketing send;
DE is opt-in under UWG §7, not opt-out. See
[Consent Management](/compliance/consent-management) and the
[GDPR posture guide](/compliance/gdpr-posture-guide).
Accept a confirmation step on opt-in for the case-law-grade evidence
German courts treat as reliable.
Confirm the German keyword vocabulary is mapped into the alias table
and writes the suppression entry. See
[Opt-Out Keyword Alias Table](/compliance/opt-out-keyword-alias-table).
The platform fallback covers it; set tenant quiet hours if you want
an explicit DE marketing window.
With DE enabled, the sender registered, consent captured, DoI handled,
STOPP wired, and quiet hours honoured, start sending.
***
## Related references
* [Country Compliance Requirements](/compliance/country-requirements) —
the full matrix this page expands one row of.
* [GDPR Posture Guide](/compliance/gdpr-posture-guide) — the EU-side
consent and data-residency posture behind DE's UWG opt-in rule.
* [Double-Opt-In](/compliance/double-opt-in) — the two-step confirmation
chain German case law treats as the reliable evidence.
* [Sender-ID Registration](/compliance/sender-id-registration) — the
submit-and-track flow for the DE `none` registration level.
* [Opt-Out Keyword Alias Table](/compliance/opt-out-keyword-alias-table) —
the German STOPP and verb-form aliases.
* [Documents-KYC](/compliance/documents-kyc) — BNetzA's document set
and the doc-age expectations.
* [Numbers Regulatory Preview](/numbers/regulatory-preview) — the
DE-heavy country requirements for number purchase.
* [Quiet-Hours Configuration](/guides/quiet-hours-configuration) — the
tenant-owned opt-in control you use to cover the 21:00–09:00 window.
* [Consent Management](/compliance/consent-management) — where the DE
marketing opt-in record lives.