NetherlandsTelecommunicatiewet (Telecommunications Act), Article 11.7(2), (6) and (8), Prior Consent for Unsolicited Communication to Natural Persons by Other Means (as rewritten in 2021)
Telecommunicatiewet, art. 11.7(2), (6) and (8)
In force since .
A telephone contact rule binding public and private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Consent, Disclosure
As of .
What it requires
- Obtain the natural person's prior consent before using any means other than an automatic calling or communication system without human intervention, a fax or an electronic message to send unsolicited communication for commercial, idealistic or charitable purposes, and be able to show that consent.
- When you send such communication with consent, give the natural person, with every message, a clear and explicit opportunity to object, free of charge and in an easy manner, to the use of their contact details.
- When you send such communication through a public telephone service, do not use the facility that blocks the provision of the calling number (Article 11.9(1)(a)).
- You need no prior consent to send such communication to a legal person or to a natural person acting in the exercise of a profession or business only if you use electronic contact details that the recipient designated and made known for receiving unsolicited communication for those purposes and use them in line with the purposes attached to them, or the recipient is established outside the European Economic Area and that country's rules on unsolicited communication are met.
- The customer soft opt-in in Article 11.7(4) is stated as a departure from paragraph 1 only. Article 11.7(6) separately lets a publisher of newspapers, weeklies, magazines and other periodicals appearing at least three times a year, and a holder of a license under Article 3, 9 or 27b of the Wet op de Kansspelen, use contact details of the kind referred to in paragraph 4 for communication under paragraph 2, on the conditions of paragraph 4: a clear and explicit chance to object, free of charge and in an easy manner, at collection and in every message.
- An idealistic or charitable organization may use contact details obtained in connection with a donation to it, or, as to means other than those in paragraph 1, contact details obtained in the course of volunteer work for it or of attending its events, for unsolicited communication for its own idealistic or charitable purposes without fresh consent only if it can show that origin and offered a clear and explicit chance to object, free of charge and in an easy manner, at collection and in every message.
If you get it wrong
Penalty structure
Article 15.4(2) lets the ACM fine a breach of a provision it supervises under Article 15.1(3) up to EUR 900,000 or, if that is more, 1 % of the undertaking's turnover, and Article 15.4(5) raises that maximum by 100 % where a fine for the same or a similar rule became final within the five years before the report of the breach.
- Rule
- Higher of
- As of
- Currency
- EUR
- Fixed cap
- 900,000
- Turnover percentage cap
- 1
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The Authority for Consumers and Markets (Autoriteit Consument en Markt, ACM), which Article 15.1(3) of the Telecommunicatiewet charges with supervising compliance with the provisions of the Act other than those named in Article 15.1(1) and (2), and which Article 15.4(2) empowers to impose administrative fines.
What this law does
Article 11.7(2) applies paragraph 1 correspondingly to the use of means other than those listed in paragraph 1 to send unsolicited communication for commercial, idealistic or charitable purposes to natural persons. Where such communication is sent with consent, the sender must give the natural person, with every message, a clear and explicit opportunity to object free of charge and in an easy manner to the use of their contact details.
Article 11.7(8) bars a sender that uses a public telephone service for such communication from using the blocking facilities referred to in Article 11.9(1)(a). Article 11.9(1)(a) obliges a provider of number identification to offer a calling user the means to block, free of charge, the provision of the calling number.
Article 11.7(3) lifts the prior-consent requirement of paragraphs 1 and 2 for communication to a legal person or to a natural person acting in the exercise of a profession or business, but only if one of two conditions is met. The first condition is that the sender uses electronic contact details that the end user designated and made known for receiving unsolicited communication for such purposes, and uses them in line with the purposes the end user attached to them.
The second condition is that the end user is established outside the European Economic Area and the rules in force in that country on unsolicited communication are met. Article 11.7(4) states the customer soft opt-in as a departure from paragraph 1. Article 11.7(5) also lets an idealistic or charitable organization, as to means other than those in paragraph 1, use contact details obtained in the course of volunteer work for it or of attending its events.
Article 11.7(6) lets a publisher of newspapers, weeklies, magazines and other periodicals appearing at least three times a year, and a holder of a license under Article 3, 9 or 27b of the Wet op de Kansspelen, use contact details of the kind referred to in paragraph 4 on the conditions stated there, in departure from paragraph 2. The Act of introduced an opt-in system for unsolicited communication to natural persons. That Act repealed the Besluit bel-me-niet-register, the do-not-call register decree.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app sends automated outreach.