Denmark ready to hand out record spam fine

Tracking down spammers has always been hard, but getting them into court has proved even harder. The Danish authorities, however, have pulled off a coup with their latest attempt to bring junk emailers to justice.

The latest spammer to fall foul of Danish law is a businessman who has been convicted of sending out more than 10,000 spam emails. Following his conviction, it's thought that the spammer could be liable for a record fine of more than Dkr1m (£92,976), according to the Financial Times.

Like the UK, Denmark has tightened up its spam laws following an EU directive passed last year, although sending unsolicited commercial faxes and emails has been illegal in the country since 2000. Although the directive doesn't seem to have reduced the amount of spam landing in inboxes around the world, the Danes have a history of tracking down the spam-happy.

Wrongdoers to feel the wrath of the Danish Consumer Ombudsman include a software company that was fined nearly £1,500 for sending 156 unwanted emails and faxes.

While Denmark has been on spammers' cases for some time, the rest of the EU is not faring so well. Nine member states have yet to implement the directive, prompting the European Commission to start legal action against them.