Hong KongUnsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance, do-not-call registers and calling line identification
Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance (Cap. 593), ss. 11 and 13 and Schedule 1
In force.
A telephone contact rule binding public and private bodies.
- Enforcement body
- Communications Authority
- Obligation class
- Consent, Prohibition, Data subject rights
As of .
What it requires
- Check the Communications Authority's do-not-call register before sending a commercial electronic message with a Hong Kong link, and do not send to a listed address unless its registered user has consented or it was listed less than 10 working days before (section 11).
- Do not conceal or withhold the calling line identification information of the telephone or facsimile number from which you send a commercial electronic message (section 13).
- A live person-to-person call with no pre-recorded or synthesized element is outside the Ordinance, and so is one whose pre-recorded or synthesized element is activated in response to the caller's input; a pre-recorded or synthesized message sent without person-to-person interaction is inside it (Schedule 1, Table 1).
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 person who contravenes an enforcement notice served for a breach of Part 2 commits an offence: a fine at level 6 on a first conviction, and a fine of $500,000 on a second or later conviction with a further daily fine of $1,000 while the offence continues (section 39).
Penalty structure
Fine on a second or later conviction for contravening an enforcement notice under section 39(2), with a further daily fine of $1,000.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- HKD
- Fixed cap
- 500,000
What this law does
Section 11 bars sending a commercial electronic message with a Hong Kong link to an electronic address that is listed in a do-not-call register when the message is sent, unless the registered user has consented or the address has been listed for less than 10 working days. Section 11 does not apply to a message sent by mistake, or where the sender did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained that it had a Hong Kong link.
Section 13 bars a person who sends such a message from a telephone or facsimile number from concealing or withholding the calling line identification information of the sending number.
Schedule 1 exempts from the whole Ordinance voice, sound, image or video messages that involve person-to-person interactive communication between a caller and a recipient without any pre-recorded or synthesized element, and such communication with a pre-recorded or synthesized element activated in response to information the caller communicates, as well as television programme and sound broadcasting services.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app sends automated outreach.