The Polish agency for Competition and Consumer Protection recently for the first time condoned a spammer. According to the agency, the Firm Edukacyjna Impuls Plus from the city of Grudziadz had violated the Provision of Electronic Services Bill by sending unsolicited commercial mail. The businessman was ordered to stop such actions and to publish a special announcement in the Gazeta Wyborcza (one of the most popular daily newspapers in Poland).

It is the first decision against a spammer in Poland and it is based on administrative law. Nobody has yet tried to challenge the phenomenon on the ground of private law.

The Polish law on the provision of electronic services was enacted on 18 July 2002, partially transposing both the directive on electronic commerce (2000/31/EC) and the directive on privacy and electronic communications (2002/58/EC).

The Polish regulation imposes a ban on sending unsolicited commercial messages to private persons by means of electronic communication, especially electronic mail. Legally, spamming is considered to be unfair competition in the interpretation of the law on Fighting Unfair Competition.

But the issue is quite complex. "The attempts to answer some questions connected with the use of information and communication technologies in a normative context, face many difficulties when it comes to defining certain terms" - the lawmakers said. One of the problems the Poles face is the fact that the law only protects against spam with a clear commercial character.

Legal analysis of the anti-spam decision (in Polish)
http://www.vagla.pl/skrypts/spam_delikt_nieuczciwej_konkurencji.htm

Polish - English translation service
http://www.translate.pl

(Contribution by Piotr VaGla Waglowski, Internet Society Poland)