EU Commission wants to push fight against spam

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

The European Commission has criticized the member countries, considering
that they should better implement the present legal framework and fight
against spam, but also take more seriously into consideration the spyware
and malicious software issues.

According to the recent figures made public by Sophos, approx. 32% of the
world’s spam comes from European countries, with France, Spain, Poland and
Italy on the top. And this situation occurs when all the EU countries have
implemented the 2002 E-privacy Directive that has imposed the opt-in
principle on spam. Cooperation in effectively implementing the legal acts is
lacking in most of the European Countries.

The Commission presented two European best practices in the fight against
spam. The Netherlands that has succeeded in cutting the domestic spam by 85%
through prosecution by OPTA that has 5 full-time employees for this topic
and 570 000 euros invested in equipment. In Finland proper filtering
measures have reduced spam from 80% to 30%. These measures together with
good online commercial practices in line with the data protection law are
among the measures envisaged by the Commission.

The Commission has also announced that it will reinforce the cooperation on
this topic with third countries, especially with the US and Asian countries.

Viviane Reding Commissioner for Information Society and Media added: “I will
revisit this issue again next year to see whether additional legislative
measures against spam are required.”

In 2007 the Commission might make changes in the EU legislation in order to
increase the user privacy and security. The possible changes include the
obligation of the service providers to notify the security breaches and the
possibilty for any person with a legitimate interest to take legal action
against spam.

Communication From the Commission on Fighting spam, spyware and malicious
software (15.11.2006)
http://europa.eu.int/information_society/policy/ecomm/doc/info_centre/communic_reports/spam/com_2006_0688_f_en_acte.pdf

Fighting spam, spyware and malicious software: Member States should do
better, says Commission (27.11.2006)
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/1629

Commission draws knives on spam (27.11.2006)
http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/commission-draws-knives-spam/article-160056

EU Commission urges states to do more against spam (27.11.2006)
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-11-27T174440Z_01_L27872269_RTRUKOC_0_US-EU-SPAM.xml