During the Parliamentary Elections HAKOM requested Operators to Block all Senders of Unsolicited Text Messages

During these elections less customer complaints were received regarding the unsolicited text messages aimed at the promotion of election campaign compared to the situation during the elections in the past. According to their jurisdiction, the electronic communication inspectors took some measures prescribed by law. After the complaint had been received the operators were requested to block senders of unsolicited incoming messages

ZAGREB, November 9, 2015 –During the election campaign, on the eve and on the Election day of representatives to the Croatian Parliament, the Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Industries HAKOM received a number of citizens’ complaints regarding the violation of the Electronic Communications Act, that is, the receipt of an unsolicited electronic communication. In accordance with HAKOM's authority, the electronic communication inspectors took some measures prescribed by law and immediately after the complaint had been received the operators were requested to block the sender of unwanted incoming text.
 
During these elections less customer complaints were received regarding the unsolicited text messages aimed at the promotion of election campaign compared to the situation during the elections in the past. It is obvious that society has reached its maturity, partially through HAKOM’s activities with the aim to prevent sending all types of unwanted messages to the end-users, that is ,by blocking all the senders of such text messages regardless of the fact whether it was a political or any other campaign.
 
Due to the fact that even before the campaign HAKOM had expected an increased number of the unsolicited messages related to the advertising content, the citizens were requested to report any received message with the content aimed at promotion or sales with no prior citizen’s consent, at the e-mail address neželjeni. sms@hakom.hr, with the data about the received text message in order to prevent any further violation of the law Thanks to the cooperation with the citizens, the State Electoral Commission and other institutions, the amount of such messages has been reduced compared to the previous period. In the coming period, HAKOM will undertake all the activities in order to identify the sender of text message but according to the experience from the previous years it is expected that the messages of this and similar content are always coming from unregistered "pre-paid" numbers which have already been switched off or  will be switched off by the operator due to misuse.
 
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For additional information please contact:

Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Industries (HAKOM)
Roberta Frangeša Mihanovića 9
10110 Zagreb, Croatia
Tel. + 385 (0) 1 700 70 07
Fax + 385 (0)1 700 70 70

Media inquiries can be submitted online using HAKOM’s official website: https://www.hakom.hr/
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