A formal complaint has been made to the Data Protection Commissioner by a man who received an unsolicited propaganda e-mail from Opposition leader Joseph Muscat.

In a letter sent through his lawyers, Alfred Mangion wrote that the basis of the complaint was the fact that he had never communicated by email with either Dr Muscat or any official of the PL and never gave his consent for them to make use of his personal data for emails containing a political message.

"It therefore follows that the acquiring of my client's personal e-mail address (as well as the IP address and internet browsing information) are in breach of the Data Protection Act since my client never consented to the PL acquiring and making use of his personal data," Mr Mangion's lawyer said.

"Also, a clarification is sought as to whether Dr Joseph Muscat and / or the Partit Laburista obtained my client's private email address legitimately or otherwise.