I relied on this page that clearly shows that LH E earns 100% miles. In fact, I specifically "bought up" to W on the outbound because the original flights I had chosen booked into L for the outbound. That price difference was only $30 or so.

Also, I'm sure I'm looking at LH booking classes on my ticket because I booked directly through LH.com -- the only UA involvement was my MP #.

Maybe United meant to include E as one of the exempt booking classes, but if that's the case, they need to fix their T&C. Obviously, they need to honor the terms they've laid out, and if they had told me that E was one of the excluded classes, there's a decent chance I would have bought up on the return, too.

Edited to add: I just checked the LH web site, and they have severely-reduced earnings (25%) on E and U booking classes, in addition to L and T. That reinforces my suspicion that UA meant to exclude E (and probably U), too. Also, E, L, and T seem to be available only on European flights, so I'm not sure why united.com excludes L and T "for intra-Europe travel" only.