The Spanish Agency for Data Protection has imposed sanctions for four and sending ’spam’

The Spanish Agency for Data Protection (AEPD) has imposed so far this year their first four penalties for offenses arising from the sending of unsolicited commercial emails, known as' spam ', as reported today in the Senate, its director, Jose Luis Pinar. yes, it inherited from the sanctioning powers on spam last year as a result of the General Telecommunications Law, the AEPD has done research on 97 'spam', which led to the initiation of infringement proceedings 14 laws. Pinar said today after appearing before the Commission on the Information Society and Knowledge of the Upper House, in the 14 procedures, six have already been completed, resulting in two

serious because massive commercial - sanctioned each with a minimum, 30,001 euros - and two other minor offenses, while the latter two were closed. Pinar justified because of the severe penalties that responded "perfectly" to the profile. "It was applied as the law is established, communications are massive, there was no prior contractual relationship and had not received the express consent for the communication," he explained. So far, most cases detected involving small and medium-sized Spanish enterprises engaged in commercial computing and communications products. However, noted that in other cases the spam is broadcast from outside Spain, the Agency has requested the cooperation of the competent authorities in those countries During his speech in the Senate, the head of the AEPD underscored the difficulties of prosecuting the 'spammers' and said that "one in 300,000 recipients' email response to attempts to steal data' phishing ', this practice "profitable" to be "low cost" of a mandar e-mail. 70% of 'E-MAILS' IS 'SPAM' On that basis, he said that currently over 70 per cent of global email traffic is spam, which implies important consequences for privacy and protection of users, and that "undermines confidence" in electronic commerce and in the Information Society. Also alluded to the costs involved in spam for companies, which are needed to estimate 15 to 20 minutes daily for users to remove the 'spam', generating "tens of billions of euros lost in productivity. That is why it encouraged the Internet to denounce this practice and requested the cooperation of Internet service providers (ISP). Pinar used his appearance to criticize the limitations faced by the AEPD. Thus, he explained that although the theoretical template of the institution is 114 people, have not been able to fill all the squares in the absence of physical space. "We have a serious problem in because the seat is designed for 60 people," he added, so that there are tables in the hallways. "

It further considered that the budget of 7 million euros was "extremely modest" and said that the staffing of the AEPD is "clearly insufficient to ensure data protection." I therefore concluded that, "or increase the means, or can be AEPD collapsed" to the increase in complaints and the need to work quickly.