Spam emails from politicians: it’s time for fines

Originally published: newspaper “Kathimerini” – Readers’ letters (in Greek)
Date: 5/07/2019

Aimilios Koronaios
Attorney at Law
LL.M. (Aberdeen), LL.M. (Athens)

Mr. Director,

Recently decision no. 19/2019 of the Greek Data Protection Authority dated 24/06/2019 was published on its website. This is the Authority’s first decision regarding political communication following the commencement of application of the General Data Protection Regulation, also known as the GDPR. According to its operative part, a MEP candidate in last May’s elections was fined 2,000 euros for sending unsolicited emails for the purpose of political communication.

According to the background of the case, the MEP candidate extracted the information of the complainant, a lawyer, from the websites managed by the Bar Associations and the Plenary Meetings of the Bar Associations. Then, in February 2019, he sent her an email in which he was promoting his candidacy, without her consent.

As the Authority considered, pursuant to Law no. 3471/2006 on the protection of personal data in the field of electronic communications, political communication via email in principle requires the prior consent of the recipient. The posting of the recipient’s e-mail address on the internet, as in this case, cannot justify the unjustifiable.

The publication of the above decision in combination with the press release of the Authority dated 24/06/2019, which states that complaints concerning political communication are under consideration and reminds us of the issuance of the relevant guidelines, make it clear that the grace period has expired. It’s time for fines.