New Spam Law May Increase Compliance Burden On Direct Marketers

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

24 March 2003

Although new European laws governing privacy and electronic communications which aim to reduce the amount of spam received by companies and individuals have been broadly welcomed, experts suggest that they are unlikely to have a huge impact on the amount of unsolicited junk mail received by e-mail users in Europe, given that the many fraudsters and spammers are based outside of the European Union, and in any case are unlikely to abide by the new laws.

However, concerns have been expressed within the IT industry that companies which rely upon direct marketing to e-mail users, but want to remain within the law, will face a huge compliance burden when the new legislation - which will require them to gain the consent of consumers before e-mail marketing is dispatched to them - comes into full force.

Currently, in EU member states such as the UK, the emphasis is on the recipients of spam and direct marketing e-mails to 'opt out' of mailing lists, a task which is often - deliberately - no mean feat.

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