CONSUMER PROTECTION FROM UNWANTED ELECTRONIC COMMERCIAL ADVERTISING UNDER LAW NO. 18-05
The technological development of the current era in various fields has led to the emergence of electronic commerce, which has become carried out through the Internet, which does not recognize geographical borders or the principles known by traditional trade, and this has increased its importance and danger at the same time. Electronic commercial advertising is considered one of the most important aspects of electronic commerce through which electronic promotion of products and services takes place, as it plays an important role in directing the will of the public and influencing the psyche of consumers, inviting them and urging them to contract with them to acquire certain products and services at the expense of others, and given the low cost of these electronic advertisements and the possibility of sending it via e-mail messages, electronic suppliers take advantage of this feature, and send it to the largest possible number of consumers, in an intensive manner, whether they have previously been dealt with or not, and whether they wish to do so or not, which increases the pressure on the consumer. These advertisements are often not accepted and welcomed by the consumer public, and therefore they are called “Spam " or " Spamming ", because they restrict the freedoms of individuals, interfere with their privacy and invade the consumer's private life, as soon as he opens his e-mail he gets surprised by it without any consent from him, and it is difficult for him to remove it from his e-mail, in addition to the damage it causes to consumers. Thus, consumer protection has become an important priority in all electronic transactions, especially protecting it from unwelcome commercial advertisements that the consumer receives via the Internet in order to avoid messages sent to him without his desire. Therefore, national and international legislation has resorted to limiting this phenomenon and combating unwanted advertisements, enacting legal texts regulating electronic commercial advertisements, and approving penal liability when violating them. Similar to the legislation of other countries, the Algerian legislator issued Electronic Commerce Law No. 18-05 to regulate electronic commercial transactions in this new type of trade, which depends on electronic communication technology, as it stipulated through it the regulation of electronic commercial advertising.
Keywords: Unwanted Electronic Commercial Advertising, Legal Protection, Electronic Consumer, Advertising Messages, Electronic Supplier, International Trade Law.