ANACOM and representatives from the national authorities of most European Union (EU) Member-states and from the European Economic Space (EES) took part, last 23 June 2004, in Brussels, in the third meeting of the relevant national authorities on the subject of unsolicited communications or spam.
The agenda contained the presentation of several projects designed to face the big amount of complaints regarding spam, namely, the project of an Internet page dedicated to the reception of complaints on spam (www.spamklacht.nl) presented by the Independent Post and Telecommunications Authority (OPTA) from Holland. Also the National Computer and Freedom Committee (CNIL) from France presented its experience in the creation and maintenance of an e-mail address dedicated to the reception of the same type of complaints, as well as a practical guide prepared to gather the outcomes and teachings of this experience.
It was also discussed the preparation and adoption of a cooperation protocol between national authorities in order to quickly and effectively report intra-community complaints on spam. In addition, the cooperation between the national authorities and the industry in order to fight against spam was discussed, as well as the international cooperation to be developed with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and, at a bilateral level, with the United States of America. Next meeting was appointed for the next November 2004.
At national level, pursuant to Decree-law no. 7/2004, of 7 January, regarding e-commerce, ANACOM was appointed as central supervision authority, with duties on all domains regulated in this diploma – including the unsolicited communication matter or spam –, except on the matters in which special law allocates sector competence to another entity. In this context, there are conversations going on between ANACOM and the National Data Protection Commission in order to specifically establish, in the near future, the competences pertaining to each one of these entities on this matter.
Related information
European Commission Communication on unsolicited commercial e-communications (spam), 9.2.2004https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=158125
