Hong KongUnsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance, address-harvesting software, harvested-address lists and related activities
Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance (Cap. 593), ss. 14-20
In force.
A commercial messages rule binding public and private bodies.
- Enforcement body
- Communications Authority
- Obligation class
- Prohibition, Consent
As of .
What it requires
- Do not supply, acquire or use address-harvesting software or a harvested-address list to send commercial electronic messages with a Hong Kong link without the consent of the registered users of the addresses (sections 15-17).
- Do not send a commercial electronic message with a Hong Kong link to an electronic address obtained by an automated process that generates possible addresses by combining letters, characters, numbers or symbols (section 18).
- Do not use scripts or other automated means to register for 5 or more electronic mail addresses from which to send more than 100 commercial electronic messages in 24 hours or more than 1,000 in 30 days without the recipients' consent (section 19).
- Do not relay or retransmit multiple commercial electronic messages with intent to deceive or mislead recipients or a telecommunications service provider as to their source (section 20).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionYes
Criminal exposure note
A contravention of section 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 or 20 is punishable on summary conviction by a fine at level 6, with imprisonment for 2 years under sections 18, 19 and 20; a knowing contravention of sections 15 to 19, and a contravention of section 20 tried on indictment, is punishable by a fine of $1,000,000 and imprisonment for 5 years.
Penalty structure
Fine on indictment for a knowing contravention, with imprisonment of up to 5 years.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- HKD
- Fixed cap
- 1,000,000
What this law does
Sections 15 to 17 make it an offence to supply, acquire or use address-harvesting software or a harvested-address list in connection with sending commercial electronic messages that have a Hong Kong link without the consent of the registered users of the addresses. Address-harvesting software is software specifically designed or marketed for searching the Internet or a public telecommunications network for electronic addresses and collecting them.
Section 18 bars sending such a message to an electronic address obtained using an automated means that generates possible addresses by permutation.
Section 19 bars using scripts or other automated means to register for 5 or more electronic mail addresses from which to send multiple commercial electronic messages without the recipients' consent, and section 20 bars relaying or retransmitting multiple such messages with intent to deceive or mislead recipients or a service provider as to their source.
A contravention is punishable on summary conviction by a fine at level 6, with imprisonment for 2 years under sections 18, 19 and 20, and a knowing contravention of sections 15 to 19, or a contravention of section 20 tried on indictment, is punishable by a fine of $1,000,000 and imprisonment for 5 years. Section 19 does not apply to a person administering an organization's information systems, or to a telecommunications service provider providing a public telecommunications service.
Against a summary charge under sections 15 to 18, a person may prove that they took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence, and for supply under section 15 and sending under section 18, that they did not know and had no reason to suspect the unlawful use or the automated origin of the address.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app sends automated outreach or crawls the web.