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Posted on 30 Sep 03
California will prohibit Internet advertisers from sending unsolicited e-mails under the toughest law of its kind in the nation, providing for fines up to $1,000 per unsolicited e-mail or up to $1 million per blitz broadcast incident.
Californias Governor Gray Davis signed legislation on September 23rd that targets not only the firms that package and send spam to consumers, but also the companies whose products and services are being advertised.
The measure covers all unsolicited commercial e-mail sent or received in California and imposes fines of up to $1,000 per unsolicited e-mail or up to $1 million per blitz broadcast incident. "There are no loopholes, no way of getting around it," said the bills author, state Sen. Kevin Murray, a Democrat.
Washington state passed an anti-spam measure in 1998, but it didnt go as far. The Washington law provides civil penalties of $500 per message for bulk or commercial e-mail with misleading information in the subject line, invalid reply addresses or disguised paths of transmission.
A San Francisco-based marketing firm, Ferris Research, estimated that unwanted e-mails cost U.S. companies nearly $9 billion in 2002 in lost productivity, consumption of communication bandwidth and drain of technical support. "California is sending a clear message to Internet spammers: we will not allow you to litter the information superhighway with e-mail trash," said Davis in a statement.
The new law is slated to go into effect on January 1st, 2004.
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