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EU presidency paper on spam
The Dutch EU Presidency of the EU had published a rather thin paper on spam. The Presidency ‘sees spam as a priority issue’ and is looking for ‘short-term practical measures and quick wins’. The paper will be on the agenda of the Telecommunications Council on 9 December 2004. The paper mentions that the Commission has […]
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New EU questionnaire on spam
The European Commission and the Dutch EU presidency have distributed 2 new questionnaires on spam, “to assess progress in the EU on combating ‘spam’ following the Communication on this issue of January 2004 that identified relevant action for all interested parties.” One questionnaire is addressed to industry, the second questionnaire to Member States and the […]
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French privacy authority forbids mail-service
The French data protection authority CNIL has declared the new U.S. mail-service ‘Did they read it?’ illegal. Through this service, launched in May 2004 by Rampell Software, subscribers get a report about the exact time their e-mail was opened, for how long, on what kind of operating system and if the mail was forwarded to […]
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Recommended Reading: EU spam regulations ineffective
The Amsterdam institute for information law published a study (commissioned by Sybari software) about the impact of the new anti-spam regulations in the EU. Their conclusion is not encouraging. “An important limitation on the effectiveness of the E-Privacy Directive is the simple fact that most spam originates from outside the EU. (…) Beyond that, the […]
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Dutch Spammer Bevelander fined 25.000 US Dollar
The Dutch spammer Martijn Bevelander has to pay 25.000 US Dollar to the US Federal Trade Commission, for unfair and deceptive acts of commerce. Bevelander and his company Maps Holding BV were accused by the FTC for misrepresenting the subject line, ‘spoofing’ (faking) the sender) and creating untrue opt-out possibilities in large amounts of unsolicited […]
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Germans consider prison sentence for spammers
The German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine reports about plans from the governing Social-Democrats (SPD) to make spamming an offence in Germany. According to the SPD, merely introducing fines is not enough, and spamming should become an offence, with penalties or a prison sentence. The working group on Telecommunication and Mail of the SPD did not yet […]
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XS4ALL wins appeal in Dutch spam case
The Dutch Supreme Court has ruled that the Dutch internet provider XS4ALL is permitted to refuse spam on its network. It is the first time that a supreme court in Europe has ruled on the rights of spammers. In the view of the Supreme Court, the fact “that XS4ALL has exclusive rights to its computer […]
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Results OECD workshop on spam
During the OECD workshop on spam, held in Brussels on 2 and 3 February, the consumer unions of Europe and the USA (united in the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue) presented the results of a survey amongst 21.102 consumers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. 96 percent of the people said that either they hated […]
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Dutch police arrests 52 'Nigerian' spammers
In January, Dutch police have arrested 52 people suspected of large scale internet fraud with the infamous ‘Nigerian e-mail’ scam. The scammers sent spam e-mails asking for help in transferring a large sum of money out of their country (usually Nigeria), in exchange for a generous percentage. According to an AP news report, the gang […]
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European Commission communication on spam
The European Commission has finally published a Communication on spam, just in time for the OECD conference on spam, hosted by the Commission on 2 and 3 February. The Communication focusses on actions to be taken by the EU member states in order to make the ban on spam more effective. Clearly, implementing the EU […]
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Polish government allowed to send SMS-spam
According to a recent decision from the Polish Data Protection Authority (Generalny Inspektor Ochrony Danych Osobowych – GIODO) a massive SMS-spamrun from the Polish government was perfectly legal. A governmental agency committed this run in June 2003 as a last-minute reminder to citizens of the upcoming referendum about the European Union. Of the 30 million […]
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Danish company fined EUR 54.000 for fax-spamming
The Danish Maritime and Commercial court last week convicted the Danish mobile phone company Aircom for spamming. The company has to pay a fine of EUR 54.000 (400.000 DKK) for sending out unsolicited commercial faxes. In Denmark, this is the largest fine issued up till now for spamming. In court, Aircom admitted to have sent […]
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