The state will register 469,000 newly established data boxes by the beginning of November, but still no one has registered.
This is a summary figure, both for natural persons in business, which also includes people with suspended trade, and also for legal entities, including, for example, associations.
For many of them, the state set up a data box automatically during this year, due to a change in the law that began to require it.
In addition, over 340,000 recipients did not even pick up the letter with the access data, according to the data requested from the Digital Information Agency (DIA) by the non-profit organization Iuridicum Remedium focusing on digital freedom.
“The number of data mailbox holders who did not log in to the data mailbox may seem high, but it was to some extent expected,” DIA spokesperson Anna-Marie Lichtenbergová tells Nauzal. “However, it is not final,” he adds, adding that the state registers a total of 3.52 million data boxes.
While Lichtenbergová mentions that the general public was intensively informed about the newly established mailboxes and it cannot be assumed that people are not aware of the obligation, the executive director of Iuridicum Remedium Jan Vobořil believes that some of them do not understand that the data mailboxes concern them directly.
“Perhaps with a discontinued business. People have completely forgotten that they are out of business because they are not doing business. The business has ended for them, but they are listed in the trade register,” the lawyer points out.
What is the data box for?
It will have negative effects
A DIA spokesperson assumes that the number of unsubscribed mailboxes will gradually decrease. “As negative impacts will gradually arise in connection with not picking up delivered messages.”
Back in the spring, the media reported that 734,000 people had not signed up for mailboxes.
“Not logging in to the data mailbox does not mean that the mailbox is not accessible and inactive. According to the terms of the law, the data box is made accessible even if the holder does not log in, i.e. on the 15th day from the delivery of the access data in case of inactivity of the holder,” explains Lichtenbergová, what the negative effects can be.
Instructions on how to set up a data box
The authorities treat these mailboxes – which have not been activated by the user – like any other and can send messages to them.
“It’s the same problem as when you don’t pick up your mail,” warns Jan Vobořil, that the result can be a message delivered as a so-called fiction, and in the past, the counseling office has dealt with cases of people who ended up in foreclosure without knowing about it.
“If someone is demanding something from you, the whole process can take place as a fiction, and you will basically only find out about it at the execution stage. You will receive an invitation to a court where you will not attend because you do not know about it. There will be a judgment that you won’t accept because you don’t know about it and you’ll only find out when your account is closed,” explains the executive director.
Ján Kuklinca, a partner of the international law firm Bird & Bird, who focuses on information technology, reminds us that problems can also arise in the commercial and legal sphere. “It can be about things like termination of the lease or the application of a contractual penalty,” he calculates.
In addition, there are only very specific situations where it can be argued that people did not actually read the news. “There are legal options and court decisions that take into account circumstances when a person objectively did not have the opportunity to log into the mailbox – for example, he was in the hospital after a serious accident,” mentions Ján Kuklinca.
In practice, even people with a suspended business are not safe. Properly, only messages related to trade should go to their mailbox, but in reality, according to Vobořil, the authorities do not follow these roles.
“When I had a lawyer’s card, I received various letters from the authorities that were sent to a natural person. It is simply a common experience that the role of the mailbox is not respected,” says Vobořil.
In such a case, however, according to Kuklinci, the delivery of fictions can be contradicted. “If the business is suspended and a message is delivered to the mailbox that is not related to the business, the fiction of delivery does not apply. On a practical level, this still creates a problem, as it sometimes takes time to argue that the message should not have gone to that databox. However, the legal consequence should be that there was no effective delivery,” he emphasizes.
