By Heather McLean, 6 September 2001 19:00
NEWS The European Parliament has failed to reach a decision under the Communications Data Protection Directive today on whether member states should each have the choice to pass legislation governing SMS spamming, or issue a blanket ban on it. This is the first instance of indecision to hit the telecoms committee at the EU and it may take a further three months to settle the issue of unsolicited commercial electronic mail. Phil Fraher, COO at US message filtering company Brightmail, said: "Legislation from the EU stating a ban on spam will constrain trade by preventing the consumer from choosing to receive advertisements." Fraher commented: "True junk mail comes from all over the world. Illegitimate junk mailers are hard to find and it will be incredibly tough to legislate against them." Direct marketers are not a problem, according to Fraher, as they are locatable and follow local laws. However, "true" spammers are the problem as they disguise themselves and use a spam technique that makes them hard to find. The UK government has chosen the opt-out decision, which means it doesn't want any law passed that may inhibit commerce via marketing over the SMS channel, arguing that most spammers are located outside of the EU so legislation is pointless.
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