Places automated calls, in the European Union

Directive 2000/31/EC, Arts. 6 and 7 · Read the law's page

• This Directive is addressed to the Member States (Article 24), which had to bring into force the measures necessary to comply with it before 17 January 2002 (Article 22(1)), so a service provider meets these rules through each Member State's transposing law.
• It reaches you if you are a service provider, meaning a natural or legal person providing an information society service (Article 2, point (b)), and you send or show a commercial communication that is part of, or constitutes, that service: make the commercial communication clearly identifiable as such, and make the natural or legal person on whose behalf it is made clearly identifiable (Article 6, points (a) and (b)).
• Where promotional offers, such as discounts, premiums and gifts, or promotional competitions or games, are permitted in the Member State where you are established, make them clearly identifiable as such, and make the conditions for qualifying or participating easily accessible and present them clearly and unambiguously (Article 6, points (c) and (d)).
• Where the Member State in which you are established permits unsolicited commercial communication by electronic mail, make each such communication identifiable clearly and unambiguously as such as soon as the recipient receives it (Article 7(1)).
• When you undertake unsolicited commercial communications by electronic mail, consult regularly and respect the opt-out registers in which natural persons not wishing to receive such commercial communications can register themselves (Article 7(2)).

Directive 2005/29/EC, Annex I, point 26 and Art. 5(5) · Read the law's page

• This Directive is addressed to the Member States (Article 21), which had to adopt and publish the measures necessary to comply with it by 12 June 2007 and apply them by 12 December 2007 (Article 19), so a trader meets this rule through each Member State's transposing law.
• It reaches you if you are a trader, meaning a natural or legal person acting for purposes relating to your trade, business, craft or profession, or anyone acting in the name of or on behalf of a trader (Article 2, point (b)), in a commercial practice directed at consumers (Article 3(1)): do not make persistent and unwanted solicitations by telephone, fax, e-mail or other remote media, except in circumstances and to the extent justified under national law to enforce a contractual obligation; the practice is in all circumstances regarded as unfair (Annex I, point 26, and Article 5(5)).

Directive 2002/58/EC, Art. 13 · Read the law's page

• Obtain the recipient's prior consent before using an automated calling machine, a fax machine, or electronic mail (including a text message, which the Directive's own definition of electronic mail reaches) to send direct marketing to an individual.
• Where you collected a customer's electronic contact details in the course of selling them a product or service, in accordance with Directive 95/46/EC, you may market your own similar products or services to that customer without fresh consent, provided you offered a free, easy opt-out at the time of collection and offer it again, free of charge, in every message, unless the customer already refused.
• For unsolicited direct marketing by means other than an automated calling machine, fax, or electronic mail, chiefly a live telephone call, check the Member State's own transposition: each state independently chooses whether such contact needs the recipient's prior consent or only needs to honour a recipient's objection.
• Never send a direct-marketing electronic mail (including a text message) that disguises or conceals the sender's identity, that itself contravenes Directive 2000/31/EC Article 6's disclosure rules, or that has no valid address the recipient can use to ask that the messages stop, and never encourage the recipient to visit a website that itself breaches those rules.

Directive 2011/83/EU, Art. 8(5) and (6) · Read the law's page

• This Directive is addressed to the Member States (Article 35), which had to adopt and publish the measures necessary to comply with it by 13 December 2013 and apply them from 13 June 2014 (Article 28(1)), so a trader meets these rules through each Member State's transposing law.
• It reaches you if you are a trader, meaning a natural or legal person, whether privately or publicly owned, acting for purposes relating to your trade, business, craft or profession (Article 2, point (2)), and you make a telephone call to a consumer with a view to concluding a distance contract (Article 2, point (7)): at the beginning of the conversation, disclose your identity, where applicable the identity of the person on whose behalf you make the call, and the commercial purpose of the call (Article 8(5)). It does not reach a contract that Article 3(3) excludes, or a distance contract for the supply of financial services, because Article 3(1b) applies to such a contract only the Articles it lists, and Article 8(5) is not among them.
• Where the Member State whose law applies has used the option in Article 8(6), confirm to the consumer the offer made by telephone, and treat the consumer as bound only once the consumer has signed the offer or sent written consent; where that Member State so provides, make the confirmation on a durable medium (Article 8(6)).

Directive 2011/83/EU, Art. 16a(3), first sentence, as inserted by Directive (EU) 2023/2673 · Read the law's page

• It reaches you if you are a trader in a distance contract with a consumer for the supply of financial services (Article 3(1b) of Directive 2011/83/EU) and you communicate with the consumer by voice telephony: make your identity and the commercial purpose of the call you initiate explicitly clear at the beginning of any call with the consumer (Article 16a(3), first sentence).when it serves a financial business
• This Directive is addressed to the Member States (Article 5), which had to adopt and publish the measures necessary to comply with it by 19 December 2025 and apply them from 19 June 2026 (Article 2(1)), so a trader meets these rules through each Member State's transposing law.

Directive (EU) 2024/2853 · Read the law's page

• The Directive does not apply to free and open-source software that you develop or supply outside the course of a commercial activity (Art. 2(2)).
• If you develop or produce software, or have it developed under your name or trademark, and make it available in the course of a commercial activity, you answer as its manufacturer for damage it causes by a defect (Arts. 4(1), 4(10) and 8(1)(a)).
• Keep supplying the software updates and upgrades needed to keep the product safe while it is within your control; a defect caused by their absence, or by software, updates or upgrades within your control, is not excused because it arose after you placed the product on the market (Art. 11(2)(b) and (c)).
• Meet the product safety requirements that apply to your product, safety-relevant cybersecurity requirements included: they count in deciding whether it is defective (Art. 7(2)(f)), and failing a mandatory product safety requirement that protects against the damage suffered presumes it defective (Art. 10(2)(b)).
• Account for what your product learns or acquires after release: the effect of any ability to continue to learn or acquire new features after it is placed on the market is weighed in deciding whether it is defective (Art. 7(2)(c)).
• Keep technical documentation you could produce if a court orders disclosure; failing to disclose presumes the product defective (Arts. 9(1), 10(2)(a)).
• If you are outside the EU, the importer or your authorized representative answers for the product in your place (Art. 8(1)(c)).
• If you substantially modify a product outside its manufacturer's control and then make it available on the market or put it into service, you are treated as its manufacturer (Art. 8(2)).
• Do not count on a contract term to limit or exclude your liability to an injured person; Article 15 bars it.
• Be able to show when you placed the product on the market or put it into service: you are not liable if you prove you did not, or that the defect probably did not exist at that time (Art. 11(1)(a) and (c)).