EN
Advertising is a phenomenon of modern society, without which we cannot imagine functioning and prosperous economy. Internet advertising is nowadays regarded as an independent marketing tool. Increasingly, however we can still observe sending of unsolicited advertising messages that present a product or service or encourage the recipient in that direction to do more. In this article the author analyses legal regulation of advertising disseminated via e-mail. Dissemination of advertising via e-mail is regulated not only by public or private national law, but is also regulated and harmonised by EU law. Whereas the dissemination of advertisements via electronic mail is an advertising action, legal regulation also applies to the use of electronic mail as an advertising tool. Doctrinal understanding of spam as unsolicited messages of any content is broader than the definition contained in the framework of EU legislation, which is limited to unsolicited advertising messages disseminated by e-mail. What remains questionable is the issue of the effectiveness of anti-spam rules because the possibility of using anti-spam law standards is considerably restricted taking into account existing limits of national jurisdictions.