The Green party has apologised for sending out unsolicited e-mails within weeks of new anti-spam legislation being introduced by Eamon Ryan, the minister for communications.

A formal complaint has been sent to the Data Protection Commissioner after a number of technology bloggers received unrequested e-mails about a Green party competition.

The mails were sent in the first week in January, a fortnight after Ryan signed into law new regulations that allow for fines of up to €250,000 to be levied against businesses who are found to be send unsolicited e-mails and text messages.

The Green party release, which was promoting the launch of a “viral video” competition, was sent to more than 20 technology bloggers and journalists. The e-mails were not individually addressed and had not been requested by the recipients, but the Green party says it is confident that the messages were not spam.

Michele Neylon, a business blogger, disagreed. He immediately made a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner after receiving the mail.

“I’ve never signed up for a newsletter from any of the Irish political parties and I have no connection to the Greens,” he said.

“The e-mail informed me that I was on a mailing list, but I never asked to be put on one. It also didn’t give me an option to remove myself from the list.

“It wasn’t addressed to me personally. It was sent to a number of other people who didn’t ask for it. So this was spam, there is no other way to look at it.”

Another blogger, Alexia Golez, was also annoyed to receive the e-mail. “I didn’t ask to be included in the mailing list, I didn’t ask for the e-mail to be sent to me and it wasn’t even addressed to me personally,” she said. “To me, that is spam.

“I’m not a journalist, I don’t get paid to write what I do, so a personal approach is key. I understand that the Green party is trying to build its online presence, but it has to be more careful how it goes about it.

“I have since got an e-mail apology from the Green party press officer. Normally, I would complain to the Data Protection Commissioner about this, but I didn’t this time.”

Damian Connon, the communications manager for the Greens, confirmed the party had received a letter from the Data Protection Commissioner, but denied that the e-mails were spam. “We expect the commissioner to find the complaint unfounded,” he said.

“It was not bulk e-mail. It was sent to a targeted group of bloggers and journalists who I thought might be interested in the competition.

“It is vital to the democratic process that political parties are not restricted from distributing information and contacting the public.

“Obviously, some bloggers do not operate like journalists, so they do not appreciate getting information in a certain way. Other bloggers to whom I sent the e-mail did not regard it as spam.”

However, Connon said the party would not be sending out any more unsolicited mails to technology bloggers. “We’ve learned our lesson,” he said.

“Since sending the e-mails, I have received reams of information about the different standards of communicating with bloggers and journalists.

“Some bloggers have developed their own set of rules about how they should be approached and the e-mail in question fell foul of these rules.”

The Data Protection Commissioner defines spam as “unsolicited direct marketing”. Under its rules a business cannot send an electronic message for the purpose of direct marketing “unless it is from someone with whom you have a current customer relationship”.

The new anti-spam legislation introduced by Ryan will allow the commissioner to refer serious breaches of the legislation for prosecution through the circuit court, where fines of up to €250,000 or 10% of the offending company’s turnover may be imposed.

Last year, the commissioner received 191 complaints about unsolicited marketing text messages and 70 complaints about unsolicited marketing e-mails.

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