Christmas cards and data protection – avoiding holiday headaches

Happy holidays! Sending festive greetings, whether by post, email, or any other written form, remains permissible under the GDPR. However, there are a few things to keep in mind regarding Article 6 of the GDPR (lawfulness of processing).

Data protection for Christmas cards – what you need to know

Sending greeting cards and written well-wishes via post is generally permitted.

To send a card, you need the recipient's name and address, which are personal data. To use this information, you need a legal basis for processing. Specifically, this means you may send such greetings if you, as the sender, have a legitimate interest (e.g., customer retention or marketing) for processing the data (pursuant to Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).

If you want to be completely thorough, you can include a reference to the GDPR on your Christmas card so that your business partners or customers can find detailed information about data processing. The recipients always have the right to object to receiving marketing materials by post.

An exception to Article 6 GDPR applies to the postal delivery of Christmas greetings to a legal entity, such as a company. Sending mail to a legal entity does not involve personal data and therefore does not fall under the scope of the GDPR. However, these are then no longer personal Christmas greetings, but rather impersonal mass mailings.

Not every Christmas greeting is GDPR-compliant

Caution , however, is advised when sending Christmas greetings via email . If you intend to send Christmas greetings by email, the situation is different. You require:

• The recipient's explicit consent to receive emails and
• a legitimate interest (e.g., customer retention or advertising) for data processing; in addition
• the inclusion of an opt-out option at the end of the email.

Simply sending a Christmas email could therefore be difficult due to the recipient's explicit consent (unless you also specified "Christmas greetings" as a purpose for email usage). An alternative here could be to include Christmas greetings as part of a regular newsletter (for which you naturally also need consent). However, these are by no means as personal as greetings sent by post.

And if you want to sing a Christmas carol to your customers over the phone or offer greetings by phone , the situation is different again. Competition law also comes into play here. According to Section 7 of the Act Against Unfair Competition (UWG), advertising via telephone calls without the customer's presumed consent is considered unreasonable harassment. While one could argue that Christmas greetings by phone do not constitute advertising, the law remains vague on this point. Unfortunately, there is often little difference between a nice gesture and disguised advertising, as anything that could potentially increase sales is classified as advertising.

The fact is, therefore, that written Christmas greetings and Christmas cards sent the good old-fashioned way by post for both business partners and customers are always permissible . That works out well, as they are also the most personal. And when companies take a little time for such Christmas greetings by post, they bring joy to the recipient. Oh, how wonderful!