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In Germany, an AI agent may only make marketing calls to consumers who gave prior express consent, and you should get the same consent from businesses. The Unfair Competition Act (UWG) sets these rules in § 7, and the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) fines violations. Germany has no official do-not-call register, so screening a list never replaces consent. Inbound calls and service calls are fine if your AI agent says it’s an AI and handles the recording correctly.
This page summarizes the law as of October 2026 to help you plan AI phone calls. It isn’t legal advice. Laws and how regulators apply them change, so check your use case with a lawyer before you start a campaign.

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At a glance

Not without consent. UWG § 7 (2) sets two rules. No. 1 covers calls in general: “Werbung mit einem Telefonanruf gegenüber einem Verbraucher ohne dessen vorherige ausdrückliche Einwilligung oder gegenüber einem sonstigen Marktteilnehmer ohne dessen zumindest mutmaßliche Einwilligung.” In English: a marketing call to a consumer needs prior express consent, and a call to anyone else needs at least presumed consent. No. 2 covers automatic calling machines: “Werbung unter Verwendung einer automatischen Anrufmaschine, eines Faxgerätes oder elektronischer Post, ohne dass eine vorherige ausdrückliche Einwilligung des Adressaten vorliegt.” In English: advertising with an automatic calling machine, fax, or email needs the recipient’s prior express consent. That covers businesses too. Some older sources use a different numbering for these rules. Whether an AI agent counts is open. As of October 2026, no court has ruled on it, and the Bundesnetzagentur hasn’t taken a position. Its list of fines through July 2026 names no AI case (fines). It sorts marketing calls into calls by a natural person and calls by an automatic calling machine. Its example of a machine call is a recorded message (FAQ, consumer page). For consumers, the answer is the same either way. Both rules require prior express consent. For businesses, it decides between presumed and express consent. Arguments that an AI agent is an automatic calling machine:
  • Wording. According to the 2003 government bill for the UWG, today’s No. 2 follows Art. 13 (1) of the ePrivacy Directive (bill, p. 21). The directive covers automated calling systems “ohne menschlichen Eingriff” (without human intervention). An AI agent that dials and talks on its own fits that description.
  • Purpose. The same bill applied this rule to businesses on purpose, because these channels are especially intrusive in business (bill, p. 21). An AI agent can dial as many numbers as any calling machine.
  • EU definition. The European Commission’s 2017 draft ePrivacy Regulation defined automated calling systems as systems that dial on their own and play sounds other than live speech (draft, Art. 4 (3)(h)). A synthetic voice isn’t live speech. The Commission dropped the draft in 2025 (Hunton), so this only shows how it reads the term.
Arguments that an AI agent makes an ordinary call under No. 1:
  • Commentary. Annerton cites the leading UWG commentary (Köhler/Bornkamm/Feddersen), which defines a call as individual verbal communication and contrasts it with automatic calling machines. Annerton compares an AI agent that talks with the person in real time to a human caller, so presumed consent would be enough for businesses.
  • History. The 2003 bill put individual phone marketing under today’s No. 1 (p. 21), and the classic calling machine plays a recording (consumer page). An AI agent answers questions and can accept a “no” at once.
Where the sources stand. Lawyers disagree. Annerton argues for an ordinary call. Lawyer Alexander Graf Rachut said in a February 2026 interview that the ban on automated calling systems covers AI agents. OC Legal discusses both readings. A human in the loop. Some vendors argue that a human who starts each call adds human intervention. Rachut calls this untested and wouldn’t build a business on it. In his view, a human must control the call and be able to start, stop, and escalate it at any time. The Commission’s AI Act guidelines say that an AI agent talks with people directly even when it starts the conversation. The mere option for a human to step in doesn’t avoid the disclosure duty (C(2026) 5054, para. 30). Those guidelines cover AI disclosure, not consent, but they point the same way. We recommend that you treat AI marketing calls as automated and get prior express consent from businesses too.

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Cold calls by a human

Consumers. A human needs the consumer’s prior express consent, the same as an AI agent. Businesses. Presumed consent means concrete facts let you assume that the business wants this call. A public phone number isn’t enough. In 2025 the Federal Administrative Court upheld a ban on calls offering to buy scrap precious metal from dental practices. That trade isn’t typical for dentists, so the caller couldn’t assume they wanted the call (BVerwG 6 C 3.23). Without presumed consent, legitimate interest under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) can’t justify using the phone numbers either. Sole traders. A call to a business number about the business counts as B2B. A call to a private number counts as a call to a consumer (Bundesnetzagentur FAQ).

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Existing customers and callback requests

No soft opt-in for calls. The customer exception in § 7 (3) only covers email. The Bundesnetzagentur requires consent for marketing calls to consumers, whether they’re customers or not (consumer page). For businesses, an existing relationship can count toward presumed consent when a human calls about related offers (BVerwG 6 C 3.23). Callbacks. When someone asks you to call back, that request is consent if it covers your company and the topic (consumer page). Say that an AI agent calls, so the consent also covers an automated call. Document it like any other consent. You can’t collect consent at the start of the marketing call itself (Bundesnetzagentur FAQ). A practical route is your own ads leading to a form where people leave their number and agree to a call from your AI agent.

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Do-not-call register: None

Germany has no official register. The Deutsche Robinsonliste, run by the I.D.I. Verband, covers phone, mobile, post, and email. It’s free for consumers and takes only private persons living in Germany. Companies may screen against it but don’t have to. The DDV-Robinsonliste of the German Dialogue Marketing Association (DDV) covers advertising letters only. Neither list replaces consent. Keep your own blocklist instead: an objection ends consent immediately. Under UWG § 7a, you must document a consumer’s consent when it’s given and keep the proof for five years after it’s given and after each use. You show it to the Bundesnetzagentur on request. The Bundesnetzagentur’s guidance on § 7a sets out what to record: Purchased leads. You stay responsible for consent a vendor collected. Get the documentation from the vendor before you call. In 2025 the Bundesnetzagentur fined companies for missing consent documentation for the first time (press release). Expiry. Consent has no fixed end date. According to the Bundesnetzagentur’s guidance, it can lapse if you wait long before you first use it or if your last call was long ago.
If someone gives consent for future marketing calls during a call, the Bundesnetzagentur expects a voice recording of that part. A transcript isn’t enough. If the caller pressed the star key, botBrains discarded the recording.
botBrains asks for consent evidence before automated campaigns. See before you start outbound campaigns.

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Tell callers they’re talking to an AI

Since August 2, 2026, Article 50 of the EU AI Act requires that people know they’re talking to an AI system, at the latest when the conversation starts. This applies to inbound and outbound calls, to consumers and to business contacts, and you can’t count on the exception for obvious cases when your AI agent sounds human. The default introduction already says that your AI agent is an AI, so keep that statement first when you edit it. When you call a consumer to sell something, the Consumer Rights Directive also requires you to name your company, anyone you call for, and the commercial purpose at the start. Germany has no extra AI disclosure law. Two general rules apply:
  • Who and why. When you call a consumer to close a contract, say who you are, who you call for, and the commercial purpose at the start (Civil Code (BGB) § 312a (1)).
  • No hidden marketing. Hiding the commercial purpose of a call is unfair (UWG § 5a (4)).
The botBrains default introduction is enough for inbound calls:
For outbound marketing calls it’s missing the purpose and how to stop future calls. Replace the topic with what the person agreed to, and name the partner if you call for someone else:
Use guidance to tell the AI agent how to handle objections, and a Unitool to write each objection to your CRM. A typical objection is “Rufen Sie mich nicht mehr an.”

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Call recording

Criminal law. Recording someone’s spoken words without authorization is a crime, punishable by up to three years in prison (Criminal Code (StGB) § 201). According to the Baden-Württemberg data protection authority, you need at least implied or presumed consent (40th activity report, p. 135). A clear notice at the start lets callers decide whether to stay on the line, and the star key lets them object. The Bundesnetzagentur also warns against recording marketing calls without the other person’s consent (FAQ). Data protection. The same report names legitimate interest or consent as the usual GDPR basis and requires the Art. 13 information before the recording starts. Link to your privacy notice for details. For financial services, tell consumers if you record (BGB § 312a (1)). Voice isn’t automatically biometric data. A recording only becomes biometric data when you process it to identify someone (GDPR Art. 4(14) and Art. 9). Recording and transcribing for quality doesn’t do that. Pressing the star key stops and discards the recording, and the transcript stays. botBrains stores both in the EU.

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Caller ID and calling hours

Show your number. Marketing callers must transmit the number assigned to them and must not hide it (Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act (TDDDG) § 15 (2)). Fines reach EUR 300,000 (TDDDG § 28). The person you call sees your botBrains number. botBrains provisions German numbers on request. For a local number, the Bundesnetzagentur requires a home or business address in that area (Bundesnetzagentur rules). Calling hours. No law sets calling hours. The Bundesnetzagentur sees signs of harassment in weekday calls before 8:00 or after 20:00 and in marketing calls on Sundays and nationwide public holidays. More than three calls a day also count (dialer page). botBrains doesn’t enforce calling hours, so schedule calls yourself.

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Sector rules

Consumers can withdraw from most contracts closed on a call within 14 days (BGB §§ 312g and 355). What’s changing. The 2025 coalition agreement promised a general rule that long-term contracts arranged by phone only bind consumers after they confirm them in text form (CCV). It wasn’t in the consumer laws the Bundestag passed in December 2025 (vzbv). A government bill from September 2026 would let consumers approve telecoms contracts with a button as an alternative to text form (Drucksache 21/8277).

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Fines and enforcement

In 2025 the Bundesnetzagentur received 39,842 complaints, ran 13 large fine proceedings, and imposed over EUR 1.099 million in fines. It fined several solar sellers and ran many large proceedings on electricity and gas calls (press release). As of October 2026, we found no German court case or fine on AI agents.

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Sources

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Next steps

Phone integration

Set up your phone line, introductions, and outbound calls.

Calling laws by country

Compare consent rules for AI calls across the EU, the UK, and the US.