Data Protection in Ukraine
Electronic marketing in Ukraine
The Law of Ukraine "On Electronic Commerce" dated September 3, 2015 provides for certain legal requirements for distribution of commercial electronic messages in the area of electronic commerce (i.e. electronic messages in any form, the purpose of which is to promote, directly or indirectly, goods, works, services, business reputation of a party engaged in a business or self-employed professional activity). In particular, commercial electronic messages shall be distributed only subject to the consent given by individual to whom such messages are addressed. At the same time, commercial electronic messages may be distributed to an individual without his / her consent only if such individual has an option to object to receiving such messages in future.
In addition, commercial electronic messages shall satisfy the following criteria:
- Commercial electronic messages shall unequivocally be identified as such;
- The recipient shall have easy access to information regarding the person sending the message as stipulated by the Law of Ukraine "On Electronic Commerce", in particular:
- full name of legal entity / individual and place of registration / residence;
- email / website of the online shop;
- registration number or tax ID number / passport details (for individuals);
- license data (in case if it is mandatory under the law);
- inclusion of taxes in calculation of the price of goods / services; and
- price of delivery of goods (in case if delivery is performed).
- Commercial electronic messages regarding sales, promotional gifts, premiums and etc. shall be unequivocally identified as such and the conditions of receiving of such promotions shall be clearly stated to avoid their ambiguous understanding as well as shall comply with advertising legislation.
In addition, under the Law of Ukraine "On Electronic Communications" dated December 16, 2020, end-users may use telephone numbers or other network subscriber identifiers obtained by any person in the course of selling goods or providing services to send advertisements for the purpose of selling goods or services only with the consent of the end-user, including in electronic form, and if the recipient is given the opportunity to refuse the use of his or her data at any time, free of charge, in a simple and understandable manner.
Furthermore, distribution of spam is generally prohibited. Spam is defined quite broadly as more than five messages (electronic, text and / or multimedia messages) sent to one recipient without the recipient's prior consent.