The second mobile telecoms operator in Romania sent unsolicited text messages.
The mobile telecoms operator Vodafone Romania was fined last year with 6.000 lei for unsolicited messages that were sent on the mobile phone, according to BizCity.ro.
"The company was sanctioned with 1.000 lei fine for ilegal processing of personal datas, and with a 5.000 lei fine for breaking the convention stated in art. 13 alin. (1, let.I) from the Law nr. 506/2004 on the processing of datas of a private nature and the protection of private life in the electronic communications sector", said Alina Savoiu, boss of the juridic office of the National Authority of Surveillance and Processing of Datas with Personal Nature (ANSPDCR), the authority that issued the fine. The fact that neither Vodafone Romania, or the authority had not communicated this fine at the time is surprising.
ANSPDCP received two complaints about unsolicited messages from Vodafone, from the same person, one in 2006, the other in 2007. If the first complaint was considered unfounded, the second was taken into consideration by the authority. The plaintiff requested the company not to receive this kind of messages, but Vodafone ignored the solicitation. According to the law (677/2001), the person who is targeted by the unsolicited commercial communication must file a written request, signed and dated, to the operator in cause. It is obliged to to answer in 15 days. If not, the client can make a complaint to ANSPDCP.
Vodafone said that the respective messages were sent again to the person because of a "system error" and that the situation didn't happened again.