How the platform works

Plain language page. This page explains what SpamBounty does, what it does not do, and how we make money. It is not legal advice. It reflects the platform as we intend to operate it from Q3 2026.

1. What the platform is for

You get unwanted commercial email. Under the GDPR, every one of those emails is processing of personal data that requires a lawful basis. For most cold outreach, the sender does not have one. That is a breach from the moment the message lands in your inbox.

The GDPR gives you tools to respond. You can demand to know what data the sender holds about you (Article 15). You can demand the data be deleted (Article 17). If the breach caused you non-material harm, you can claim compensation (Article 82). Member State civil courts enforce these rights.

The rights exist. The problem is that exercising them is tedious. Drafting a correct Article 15 request, tracking the 30-day deadline, writing a pre-filing letter, filing a small-claims action when the sender ignores everything — most people will never do this, not because they do not have a valid claim, but because the paperwork is dull and the procedural risk feels too high for one spam email.

SpamBounty handles the paperwork so you can actually exercise the rights.

2. What happens, step by step

Step 1. You flag an email. You forward an unwanted commercial email to your personal SpamBounty address, or connect your inbox for one-click flagging. We identify the sender (the data controller), pre-fill a proper Article 15 GDPR access request in your name, and show it to you for approval. You can edit anything. When you approve it, we send it from your email address to the controller.

Step 2. The controller has 30 days to respond. Article 12(3) GDPR gives them one month from the date the request is received. Most controllers comply: they disclose what data they hold, delete it, and stop contacting you. That is the outcome the law expects, and it is the outcome we want. You pay nothing. We earn nothing.

Step 3. If they ignore the request. After 30 days of silence, we prepare two documents for your review: a pre-filing letter (a final notice giving the sender a short window to resolve the matter before court) and a ready-to-file small-claims court document, pre-populated with the facts of your case and a proposed compensation figure grounded in the real cost the sender would face in court. You read both, you edit either, and you choose whether to send the pre-filing letter, file in court, settle if an offer comes in, or drop the case entirely.

Step 4. Resolution. Every case ends in one of four places. None costs you money up front.

3. The four outcomes

Outcome A — The sender complies. They answer the Article 15 request, delete your data, stop emailing. Most common outcome. You pay nothing. We earn nothing. The spam stops.

Outcome B — Settlement through our escrow. The sender offers a settlement through the platform. If you accept, the money goes into escrow. A 7-day verification window opens: you confirm that the sender actually deleted the data and actually stopped. When you release escrow, the funds come to you minus 20%, capped at €40 per case. The fee comes out of money that would not have existed without the platform.

Outcome C — You file in small-claims court. If the sender ignores both compliance and settlement, the tool generates the court filing. You sign and file. The court fee (€7–€70 depending on jurisdiction) goes directly to the court — we never touch it. If the court finds for you, the judgment goes directly from the sender to you. We do not see a cent of a court award.

Outcome D — You walk away. You can drop any case at any time, for any reason, at no cost. There is no penalty, no argument, no clawback.

4. What we charge

Nothing up front. Nothing at any point for any action you take on the platform.

The only fee we charge is 20% of a settlement that a sender pays to you through our escrow, capped at €40 per case.

Worked examples:

The cap is deliberate. A 20% take on a large settlement would misalign our incentives with yours. The cap means that once a sender is paying enough to matter, we are no longer scaling with your recovery.

If the sender pays you directly outside the platform, you keep 100%. If the court rules for you, you keep 100% of the award. If the sender simply complies and no money changes hands, you keep 100% of nothing, and so do we.

5. What we are, what we are not

• We are a technology operator. We build software and run it.
• We are not a law firm. We do not give legal advice. Anything on this site is general information, not advice tailored to your case.
• We are not a collection agency. We do not dun senders progressively. We offer one pre-filing letter, one settlement window, and then you decide whether to file in court.
• We are not a mass-litigation vehicle. Each case is your case, filed in your name. We prepare the documents, you sign and file.
• We are based in the European Union (Block Ventures Sp. z o.o., registered in Tychy, Poland), and we handle user data accordingly — stored in the EU, never transferred to a third country without an adequacy decision.

6. GDPR references

The framework this platform relies on:

• Article 12(3) GDPR — the controller must respond to an Article 15 access request within one month of receipt.
• Article 15 GDPR — the data subject has the right to know whether their personal data is being processed, and to receive a copy along with processing metadata.
• Article 17 GDPR — the data subject has the right to erasure under specified conditions.
• Article 82 GDPR — a data subject who has suffered material or non-material damage as a result of an infringement has the right to receive compensation from the controller.

Two CJEU decisions matter for the threshold of non-material damage: ASG 2 (C-182/22) and Quirin Privatbank (C-741/24). In plain terms: the Court has accepted that procedural breaches of Article 15 can give rise to Article 82 compensation, and that the threshold for non-material damage is low. A standard small-claims court can process such a claim.

Nothing on this page is a substitute for advice from a lawyer licensed in your jurisdiction.