Spanish Law and Your Website: Key Compliance Facts
**Spanish Law and Your Website: Key Compliance Facts**
**Personal Website with Advertising: Legal Implications**
I have a personal website, but I have to finance expenditures with hosted banners or other advertising media. How does the new law affect me?
The Act applies to websites that offer advertisements for which the owner of the site receives any income. The only requirements for the content of the pages on the Internet are to include basic information on the website of the provider:
- Your name
- Address
- Email address
- NIF
- Phone or fax
- Codes of conduct to which it is attached
Advertising that is displayed on the website must comply with the provisions of the Act, which requires identifying the advertiser and presenting it as clearly distinguishable from non-advertising content of the page. Also, other rules must be respected regarding advertising, contained in other laws.
**Email Equivalents Under the Law**
Does the Law refer to email when it mentions electronic media equivalents?
It refers to those that allow individual communications between the provider and the recipient of services, for example, short messages (SMS) and multimedia messaging (MMS) sent to mobile terminals.
**Unsolicited Commercial Communications**
If I receive unsolicited commercial communications by electronic means, what steps can I take?
Review information provided by your Internet service provider on tools for filtering unwanted content. Set filters to avoid receiving unsolicited commercial communications. If you believe that there has been a breach of Article 21 or Article 22 of LSSI, go to the Spanish Agency for Data Protection, or if Article 20 of the LSSI, go to the Ministry of Industry, Tourism, and Trade.
**Displaying Basic Service Provider Information**
In what form must basic information about the lender of service specified in Article 10 of Law be shown?
Article 10 of the Act states that information about the service and its activities are to be made available to users electronically, permanently, easily, directly, and free of charge. When services are provided through a website, it is sufficient to include this information so that it is accessible as indicated.
These conditions are fulfilled if the information is contained on the homepage of the service provider or inserted into the inside pages related to the type of information involved and can be accessed through a link clearly visible, whose title unambiguously alludes to the information concerned. For example, to access identifying information of the company, a tab with the heading “About Us” or any other sufficiently expressive of the kind of information referred to would suffice.
**Pre-Employment Information Requirements**
How must the pre-employment information referred to in Article 27 of the Act be displayed?
Article 27 of the Act states that pre-employment information must be clear, comprehensible, and unambiguous and should be available to the user on a permanent, easy, and free basis, using techniques appropriate to the medium used.
**Suspicious Content on Your Server**
On the server that I run, there has been a channel for suspicious content. What do I have to do? Will I be liable if the information available in the channel is found to be illegal or criminal?
The hosting provider is not required to conduct an investigation into the legality of the content it hosts. But, if you suspect that particular content (or channel) may be an offense, you must give notice to the nearest Coroner of the alleged criminal act, in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Act. If a court or administrative agency orders you to remove content or restrict access to it, you should do so immediately. The server administrator is not liable for illegal content hosted on it if they are not aware of the illegality.
**Registration Requirements for Information Society Service Providers**
Must service providers of the information society enroll in a registry?
As for services through the Internet, no official authorization is required. There is no record to be kept of service providers for the fact of using electronic means to conduct their business.
**Authorization to Provide Services via the Internet**
Do you need any authorization to provide services through the Internet?
The provision of any service over the Internet or other electronic means can be done freely and requires no specific authorization. However, those activities or services which are subject to administrative authorization or other requirements shall be subject to general rules applicable to them because of existing laws and regulations, regardless of whether provided through the Internet. For example: Type C general authorization required to provide Internet access services will remain enforceable to the Internet access providers, and authorizations necessary for the opening of certain types of establishments such as pharmacies, or the need for an association for exercising certain professions are not affected by this Act.
**Website Obligations for Businesses**
What are the duties which the law imposes on a company that has its own website through which they market their products or services?
They must inform in a clearly visible and identifiable manner:
- The characteristics of the service.
- The functions of the software, if any, are unloaded, including the phone number to dial.
- The procedure to end the connection of additional charges, including an explanation of the particular time at which such a purpose.
- The procedure for restoring the connection number prior to the attachment of additional charges.