Spammers, beware, you could be facing legal charges now!

30.09.2019

Electronic trade and trade in general were the topic of discussion in the National Assembly of Serbia. There were amendments to articles of the law and MPs, after a long debate, decided to adopt two new laws. Namely, amendments of the Law on Electronic trade were put on vote. Amendments were adopted, and we will explain such amendments in this article, and additionally, the new Law on Trade was adopted as well, which will be a topic of another article.

As of 30 July 2019, that is, from the 8th day from publication in the "Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia", the Law on Amendments of the Law on Electronic Trade came into effect. Exceptions relate to a few articles (for example, new Article 5a and Article 21 paras 3 and 4), since these provisions will come into effect when the Republic of Serbia becomes a member of the EU.

Amendments to the Law on Electronic Trade

Are you familiar with the Amendments to the Law on Electronic Trade?

These are:

  • IT service provider may be a natural person;
  • Commercial message may be sent only with the consent of the recipient;
  • Free cross-border service provision Serbia – EU/EU – Serbia enabled;
  • Unsolicited content must be removed after two business days;
  • During IT service provision it is possible to keep data over 30 days.


What is an IT service

IT service is a remote service. This includes, but does not mandate, a fee for a service provided. The fee is collected using electronic equipment for data processing and storage, at the personal request of the service user. This mostly relates to e-commerce, but it is not the only applicable IT service. Such services include 

  • offering data online
  • online advertising
  • storing data of the service user
  • electronic search and enabling data and service search that are transferred online
  • securing access to such network.

IT service provision and sending commercial messages

IT services for commercial purposes can be provided by a natural or legal person registered for certain business activities in line with the law. Therefore, both natural and physical persons can send message advertising a certain service.

Except for regulated exceptions, contract may be concluded in electronic form, that is, by electronic means. Contract in electronic form is a contract concluded between the IT service provider and the user of such service. Contract shall be concluded by electronic means (for example, by clicking the Accept Terms button). It will be interesting to see what the court practice will say in case of trade dispute for a contract concluded in such a manner, that is, without seal or signature, that are thus marginalized even more.

Commercial messages can be sent electronically only with prior consent of the person receiving such message. Service provider shall regularly check whether such person gave consent or withdrew consent.

Pecuniary fines shall be set for the violations of legal provisions in the amount from RSD 20,000 for entrepreneurs and from RSD 100,000 for legal entities. Therefore, spammers, beware! Now there is a legal provision that may be used to sue you to an appropriate court instance and based on which you could be held liable. Check your bases regularly and respect the privacy of commercial message recipient in case they do not wish to receive such messages anymore.

Freedom of cross-border service provision

Cross-border service provision entails service provision not only in the Republic of Serbia or EU but also the case when the service provider is not a resident of a country where the services are provided, that is, has no seat there. The same is applied to service providers with residence in EU that direct their services towards our country.

Providing cross-border services is free in principle, but there is an option for the competent Ministry to act in case it wishes to limit providing these services. In case of violation of these legal provisions, sanctions for legal entities shall be RSD 100,000, while entrepreneurs will have to pay RSD 20,000.

Removing content after two days

Service provider shall remove unsolicited content without delay. The deadline is two business days from the moment of reception of the act of competent authority for the application and implementation of the law violated, ordering the removal of unsolicited content.

In case of violation of this legal provision the sanctions for entrepreneurs are from RSD 10,000 to 300,000, while legal entities have to pay from RSD 100,000 to 1,500,000.

Keeping data

 

Data received by the IT service provider from the user must be kept for at least one month (more accurately 30 days) from the date of termination of service. This is especially related to the IP address of the user during IT service provision.

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