The Ministry of Energy, Tourism, and Digital Agenda accuses thousands of website owners of not complying with the SSI Law by sending emails
Recently, an email sent by the very Ministry of Energy, Tourism and Digital Agenda, has generated a real alarm in thousands of websites throughout Spain. The reason? An accusation of breach of the LSSI, the Law of Services of the Information Society, and electronic commerce.
The subject that accompanied the emails sent by the Ministry was the following: ‘Possible breach of Law 34/2002, of July 11’. It couldn’t be clearer. But when the email is opened, the issue seems to get even worse. We find the following: “ It has been observed that your website does not comply with any of these obligations ”.
Once all these emails, their recipients, and their characteristics of all of them have been analyzed, the conclusion we can reach is that it was a generic email, not based on any type of inspection. For this reason, it is worth asking: why has such an alarm been generated with such a direct message? In the first steps of creating an online business, entrepreneurs are not always well informed about the legal requirements that must be met.
SSI Law Compliance Reminder
These emails, sent by the Government to almost 20,500 Spanish websites, have been intended to remind of the need to comply with the LSSI, and this has been recognized by the Ministry of Energy, Tourism, and Digital Agenda. In the event that the emails had been an administrative requirement for the correction, they should have been accompanied by a term to correct non-compliance and correct the deficiencies located in a hypothetical inspection. To reassure the recipients of this massive email, the Ministry wanted to calm the alarm created:
“If a company that has received the email believes that it already complies with the law or that it does not apply to them, they do not have to do anything.”
Discontent among website owners
Given all of the above, it is quite reasonable that a feeling of discomfort has been created among the recipients of such a forceful email, for no reason. The tone of the email was not informative, although it is now recognized that this was its purpose. If it was about informing, the phrase “ It has been observed that your website does not comply with any of these obligations ”, is difficult to justify. The tone used, according to a good part of the recipients, has been threatening, alarmist, and unjustified, insinuating possible compliance that neither existed nor had there been a previous inspection on which to base it.
Explanation of the Ministry and regulations when opening an online store
On its own web page, the Ministry states that this mail to thousands of recipients is due to a generic inspection carried out on sites and web pages that have the domain name “.es”. The objective is that the managers of these pages review and adapt them to the information on the provision of services that are advertised, the prices marked on the page itself, and the parameters of the law. The Ministry states that, although no deadline has been set for these reviews, they will carry out another generic inspection to verify that their review request has been met.
There are two rules to take into account for the creation of the online store: on the one hand, the well-known Organic Law on Data Protection, which guarantees the right to privacy, and the proper use of obtaining personal information of users and potential customers. On the other hand, there is the LSSI, as we are seeing.
The LSSI’s main objective is the regulation of electronic commerce and all communication carried out by electronic means. We can divide this regulation into two other very important laws, the “ Electronic Commerce Law ”, and the so-called “ Cookie Law ”, that is, the one that obliges website owners to inform their users of the use of cookies. , and to request your consent and acceptance.
With regard to the Electronic Commerce Law, its purpose is to provide information to users who browse an online store, about those variables and parameters of the purchase, with fundamental aspects such as the final price of the item or the order, terms, and return conditions, etc. The entity in charge of monitoring compliance with all these regulations is the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AGPD) .
