Under number 300/2008, a new Act on Electronic Acts and Authorised Conversion of Documents was published in the Collection of Acts, which shall enter into force on 1 July 2009. This Act introduces, inter alia, new legal institutes into our legal order, such as data boxes, the Information System of Data Boxes (ISDS) or authorised conversion of documents. These are significant elements of the further development of e-government in the Czech Republic, tools through which electronic communication between legal persons and citizens and public administration takes place. At the same time, this Act places electronic and paper documents on the same footing, which appears to be a very important step for the future.

The purpose of Act No. 300/2008 Coll. is primarily faster, more reliable and cheaper provision of public administration services to the widest possible public. A data box can be understood as an electronic repository which is intended for delivery and for performing acts vis-à-vis public authorities. Through it, it will be possible to send official documents in electronic form to public authorities or to receive them from public authorities. This method of communication should subsequently replace the traditional method of delivery in paper form.

Official documents delivered in this manner are marked with a time stamp and the electronic mark of the sender. Documents going in the opposite direction must be marked with a guaranteed electronic signature.

A document which is delivered to a data box is delivered at the moment the authorised person logs in. Similarly to postal consignments, a fiction of delivery applies here: if you do not log into the data box within 10 days from the day the document was delivered, the document is deemed to have been delivered on the last day of that period. This delivery has the same effects as delivery into one’s own hands. However, this does not apply without exception; it is possible to request relief from failure to observe a time limit (within 15 days from the day the obstacle ceases) due to temporary absence or for another serious reason.

A data box is mandatory for legal persons established by law, public authorities and for all legal persons registered in the Commercial Register. A data box may also be obtained voluntarily and free of charge by other legal persons, natural persons or natural persons carrying on business. The data box is established and administered by the Ministry of the Interior.

In conclusion, it can be added that this is not a box in the manner of traditional e-mail; through it, it is only possible to communicate with an authority, not with another legal person or natural person, to which the level of its security against unauthorised access should also correspond.

This text was translated from Czech to English using an AI translator.