CZECH REPUBLIC Law and Practice Contributed by: Irena Lišková, Ladislav Mádl, Eliška Říhová and Adam Vymazal, Randl Partners
personal data protection requirements, it may use those contact details to disseminate commercial communications relating to its own similar prod - ucts or services, provided that the customer has a clear and unambiguous opportunity to refuse consent to such use in a simple manner, free of charge or at the expense of that natural or legal person, when sending each individual message, if the customer did not initially refuse such use; and • the dissemination of commercial communications by electronic mail is prohibited if: (a) they are not clearly and unambiguously marked as commercial communications; (b) they conceal or disguise the identity of the sender on whose behalf the communications are made; or (c) they are sent without providing a valid address to which the addressee can directly and effec - tively indicate that they do not wish to receive such communications from the sender. Supervision in the field of e-mail marketing is entrust - ed to: • regional trade licensing offices (in compliance with the Advertising Regulation Act); • the Office for Personal Data Protection (in compli - ance with the Information Society Act, the Con - sumer Protection Act and the GDPR); • the Czech Trade Inspection Authority (in compli - ance with the Consumer Protection Act in relation to repeated unsolicited offers); and • the Czech Telecommunications Office (in compli - ance with the Electronic Communications Act). In addition to the sender, the advertiser is also respon - sible for the dissemination of e-mail advertising. The advertiser must always be able to provide evidence of consent to the sending of commercial communi - cations for its benefit. In this context, the Office for Personal Data Protection has pointed out that there is strict liability for the dissemination of commercial communications without the consent of the recipients, and the legal obligation cannot be waived by contrac - tual delegation of liability to the sender. Sanctions for violating rules of e-mail marketing will differ depending on which of the above-mentioned
laws was violated. A penalty may be imposed for vio - lations of: • the Advertising Regulation Act (up to EUR77,000); • the Information Society Act (up to EUR385,000); • the Electronic Communications Act (up to EUR1.92 million for legal entities/entrepreneurial natural per - sons and up to EUR3,850 for natural persons); • the Consumer Protection Act (up to EUR192,000); and • the GDPR (up to EUR20 million). In cases of violation of the Civil Code, the remedies detailed in 1.8 Private Right of Action for Consumers are available. The most common offence in practice is the sending emails with ads without the consent of the recipients – in such cases, sanctions are imposed by the Office for Personal Data Protection. The highest sanction imposed was EUR230,000 – in this case, emails were sent to almost 500,000 recipients and neither the sender nor the advertiser could prove that they had obtained consent. 6.2 Telemarketing The provisions of the Electronic Communications Act, the Advertising Regulation Act, the Consumer Protec - tion Act and the GDPR apply to telemarketing. Pursuant to the Electronic Communications Act, tele - marketing is prohibited unless: • the number owner has indicated in the public directory that they wish to be contacted for mar - keting purposes; • the telemarketer has obtained the consent of the number owner; or • the number owner is already the telemarketer’s customer. Telemarketers cannot contact number owners; con - tacting based on randomly generated telephone num - bers is also forbidden. Direct marketing through auto - mated calling systems without human intervention is also prohibited unless the caller has the prior consent of the number owner. The above rules shall also apply
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