Following the investigations initiated upon receiving complaints on unrequested commercial messages sent by e-mail, the National Regulatory Authority for Communications and Information Technology (ANRCTI) found eight such contraventions, under Law no.365/2002 on electronic commerce, republished, fining seven companies RON 1,000 and one RON 2,000.
Here is a list of the fined companies, in the chronological order of their sanctioning: S.C. Managementproiect S.R.L. – Targu-Jiu, S.C. Curtea Veche Publishing S.R.L. – Bucharest, S.C. Elitech Mit S.R.L. – Oltenita, S.C. E-Student Consult S.R.L. – Bucharest, S.C. Chris&Chris Solutions Co S.R.L. – Bucharest, S.C. Ghizbi S.R.L. – Bucharest and two natural persons from Bucharest. Furthermore, S.C. Westfloor Profesional S.R.L. – Bucharest was fined RON 1,000 for failure to provide the information required by ANRCTI.
According to Law no.365/2002, sending by e-mail, without the prior consent of the addressee, a commercial communication, namely a message intended to promote – directly or indirectly – the products, services, image, name, company or brand of a commercial entity or member of a regulated profession represents a contravention.
“We intend to apply in the future higher and higher fines for sending unrequested commercial messages and this first set of minimum sanctions represents a warning for all the persons who breach the legal provisions, whether these have already been sanctioned or read about that in newspapers or on the Internet”, declared Dan Georgescu, the President of ANRCTI.
From the beginning of the year, ANRCTI has received approximately 600 complaints, which signal both the reception of unrequested commercial messages, with the breach of the electronic commerce law, and the breach of other legal provisions. Certain complaints, such as those related to the phishing attempts (i.e. attempts of achieving personal data with a view to conduct fraudulent activities on bank accounts), exceed ANRCTI’s competence and were forwarded to the competent authorities.
“It is worth mentioning that, during investigations, certain plaintiffs were found to have given their consent to receive commercial messages, by logging on a site, filling in a form or at the moment of signing a contract. ANRCTI could investigate faster the grounded complaints, if all the plaintiffs made sure they had not agreed to receive commercial messages by e-mail,” Dan Georgescu emphasized.
ANRCTI cannot investigate and solve a complaint on receiving unrequested commercial messages unless it specifies the content of the respective spam message and it is accompanied by the original message or by the respective e-mail header (which may be forwarded using the function “Forward as Attachment”), as well as the plaintiff’s identification data (including a telephone number and an e-mail address). Moreover, the plaintiff needs to specify whether he/she gave his/her consent to receive such communications, and to take all the necessary measures to keep (save) the respective commercial message. The complaints may be forwarded electronically to the e-mail address relatii_cu_publicul@anrcti.ro or may be sent/submitted to the ANRCTI headquarters in Bucharest 5, 14 Liberty Blvd., at the registration office.
At present, the Romanian legislation does not provide sanctioning tools for non-commercial unrequested messages sent via electronic means (for instance, the political and religious propaganda). As well, the control and sanctioning tools provided by the legislation in force cannot be used if the unrequested commercial messages are sent by service providers from abroad.