With the steadily increasing use of smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices, mobile advertising technologies are also moving more and more into the focus of the advertising industry and its customers. Both cutting-edge and well-tried technologies such as push notifications, location-based services, and advertisements within apps offer highly interesting options for targeted advertising to specific target groups in the field of enterprise mobility.

On the legal side, however, the use of such technologies often threatens a conflict with the legal requirements, in particular competition law and data protection. In the case of such legal violations, in contrast to conventional print advertising, the advertiser is often not solely responsible. Agencies and service providers who design advertising content on behalf of their customers, place such content on mobile websites or send it to addressees using current technologies, can also be held responsible, depending on the circumstances of the individual case. The same can apply to the manufacturers of mobile games software applications and free spins provided that these apps are used to transport advertising content.

Coin Master spins: Admissibility of mobile advertising technologies

The placement of advertising banners within apps or otherwise on mobile devices should also generally be reasonable for the user, as long as the advertisements are kept within reasonable limits, taking into account the overall circumstances. Under this premise, higher demands will be placed on advertisements on paid apps than in the case of apps that can be used free of charge, the creation of which is therefore usually financed by the advertisements.

Coin Master spins: The challenge of data protection

Mobile advertising is often placed on the basis of a previous, targeted evaluation of personal data such as name, e-mail address, occupation, hobbies, age or gender of the advertising addressees. The use of such personal data is known to be subject to strict legal requirements.

For many mobile advertising measures, it is difficult or impossible to find a legal permit. To make matters worse, the data protection authorities and courts usually tend to interpret the legal permit regulations rather narrowly. The electronic consent procedure is therefore often the method of choice for mobile advertising, also from a data protection point of view.