Commercial Communications
Tuesday, March 8th, 2016Fast, cheap, comfortable and simple. Communications by electronic means have clearly revolutionized our way of understanding things. However, the law of services of the information society prohibits the sending of such commercial communications without a prior consent; being one of the issues by companies when considering such a policy, on the definition and exact scope of the concept. Despite the ambiguity that creates in many occasions, LSSI expressly prohibits sending advertising or promotional communications by email or other means of electronic communication equivalent to that had not previously been requested or expressly authorised by the recipients of the same; unless the company has obtained the contact details of the recipient lawfully and used them for the sending of commercial communications regarding products or services of your company which are similar to those who were object of recruitment. Only this form is could send commercial communications to your customers without their consent, provided that there is a prior relationship and the content thereof is focused to the initially contracted services. The law stipulates that commercial communications would be any form of communication aimed at promoting, directly or indirectly, image or the goods or services of a company, organisation or person carrying out a commercial, industrial, craft or professional activity.
In this way, we could say that promote any action that has as its object, persuade or communicate would have consideration of commercial communication, although it is not a concept clear at all times; as it can be with the sending of such communications by entities without profit, for invitations to events or simply congratulations in dates (in all cases, there are sanctions from the Spanish Agency of data protection for the same reason, don’t count on your prior consent). Furthermore, another problem of interpretation can come with what can be deemed as indirect promotion, a broad concept that we can affirm that it makes consideration of the legality in the exchange of links or banners that can result from the advertising collaboration between companies, and may include content outside communications licensed clients or third parties. In this sense, the Spanish Agency of data protection has been sanctioning those assumptions on which the company has devised some system of sending commercial emails ignoring the demands of the LSSI (have a prior and informed consent, or the prior existence of a contractual relationship). Thus, sanctions are have been able to know by methods as send to a friend, by what a person forwards a commercial email that you want to send the company. Compounding the issue on the matter, this behaviour is particularly serious when performed on a massive scale, being known by the anglicized SPAM. The low cost, anonymity, speed and the possibilities offered has let the growth of This abusive way. Therefore, to securely send advertising or promotional messages, you must have been requested or expressly authorised by the recipients thereof, unless there is a prior contractual relationship. Violating this precept could be a mild or severe infringement of the LSSI, with fines of up to 150,000 euros. Ivan Ontanonramos Department TIC Audea safety information law