Commercial electronic message in Data Protection Law

Commercial electronic messages are one of the most common form of unsolicited messages. The growing of e-commerce has made these messages even more widespread. E-commerce law defines the sending and the content of commercial electronic messages into certain rules. Sending commercial electronic messages constitutes personal data processing activity as well. Therefore, the provisions of data protection law should also be taken into account when sending messages. However, the fact that both branches of law stipulate a positive statement of will for the activity and the interdisciplinary feature of the subject give rise to confusion. Hence, in this study, commercial electronic message sending is evaluated from the perspective of data protection law. First of all, data protection law is examined in order to solve the problem. Secondly, what the concepts and institutions related to commercial electronic messages mean in terms of data protection law is determined. Then, it is put forward how the rules of the two branches of law will be applied to the sending of commercial electronic messages. Through these, it is asserted how commercial electronic message sending should be examined in terms of data protection law. In this context, it is detected that the institutions of e-commerce law -those which allow sending commercial electronic messages- meet the grounds for lawful data processing within the data protection law. In this way, a legitimate ground, that is more suitable to the spirit of the field, is found for the necessities of the data protection law besides the grounds for lawful data processing. Therewithal, it is promulgated that there is no need for two separate consent for a single activity.