A court in Berlin Germany has ordered Google to “stop ignoring customer emails and start offering a way to communicate with the company.” This comes in response to a complaint brought by the Federation of German Consumer Organizations.
According to PC World the automated response to the email address “support-de@google.com” said that Google couldn’t read or reply to individual emails. It provided a long list of specific links to different FAQs and product guides instead.
Here’s what the automated email response looked like in part:
In handling email inquires this way, the Berlin court found that Google had violated the “German Telemedia Act.” Section 5 of that Act says that commercial entities must provide “details which permit rapid electronic contact and direct communication with them, including the electronic mail address . . .” (see below for full text).
According to PC World’s discussion of the Berlin court’s decision, this provision of the act was violated by the Google automated response that said the inbound email would not be read, which undermined the objective of “direct communication” between companies and their customers.
Failure to comply with the ruling could result in a fine of more than $300,000. However Google can appeal the court’s decision.
Commentaires