The StWL v. eprimo case concerns the question of spam (unsolicited commercial communications) and how far the rules extend.
On a free ad-supported e-mail service, users were shown adverts to support the service financially (a paying version was also available, without ads). While ads sometimes appear in banners or pop-up windows, the ads that were the subject of this particular case appeared in the list of e-mails, between e-mails received. Imagine an inbox with a structure such as this: (i) e-mail 1, (ii) e-mail 2, (iii) ad, (iv) e-mail 3, etc. The content of the ad looked like an e-mail, other than the fact that there was no date.
The CJEU was asked to see whether this is spam, i.e. an unsolicited commercial communication prohibited under the ePrivacy Directive (2002/58/EC).
Read our analysis here – and why we fear that the CJEU's approach could set a dangerous precedent for the world of online advertising.