The National Supervisory Authority has finalized an investigation with the controller Artmark Holding SRL and found that it infringed the provisions of Article 13 paragraph (1) letter q) of Law no. 506/2004, corroborated with Article 13 paragraph (5) of Law no. 506/2004 and with Article 7 of the Government Ordinance no. 2/2001.

The controller Artmark Holding SRL was sanctioned with a fine in the amount of 10,000 lei.

The sanction was applied to the controller because it did not prove that it obtained the express and unequivocal prior consent for the transmission of commercial messages by e-mail, in violation of the provisions regarding the unsolicited communications provided by Article 13 paragraph (1) letter q) of Law no. 506/2004 on the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector.

In this context, the company was recommended to take the necessary measures to comply with the provisions of Article 12 of Law no. 506/2004, for sending commercial messages through electronic means of communication only with the express prior consent of the recipients.

Pursuant to Article 12 paragraph (1) of Law no. 506/2004 on the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector, it is prohibited to carry out commercial communications by using automatic call and communication systems that do not require the intervention of a human operator, by fax or e-mail or by any other means that use electronic communications services for the public, unless the subscriber or user concerned has previously expressed his/her express consent to receive such communications.

The National Supervisory Authority imposed the sanction as a result of a petition claiming that the controller Artmark Holding SRL transmitted to the petitioner unsolicited commercial messages on his e-mail address without his consent. Thus, although the petitioner had requested the company to delete his personal data from the controller’s database as they had been obtained without his consent, he continued to receive unsolicited commercial messages from Artmark Holding SRL on his e-mail address.

Legal and Communication Department

A.N.S.P.D.C.P.