The European Parliament is next Thursday expected to vote in favor of the legalization of spamming – the practice of sending bulk unsolicited commercial email – following a committee decision this week. European internet service providers are lobbying hard to prevent the legislation going through in its present form, claiming MEPs have been misinformed and the laws would go against international opinion.
The proposal to legalize spam, in Article 7 of the draft directive Proposal For European Parliament and Council Directive On Certain Legal Aspects of Electronic Commerce in The Internal Market, states merely that junk email should be labeled as such in its headers. European ISPs welcomed the EU’s good intentions, but fear that weak legislation could give spammers more right to spam, than they themselves have rights to filter it. A UK member of EuroISPA, the Brussels-based association that represents European ISPs, told ComputerWire that the Parliament’s regulations were misinformed on technical matters which had resulted in a reluctance to over-legislate.
Last week the Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee voted to pass Article 7, but added an amendment stating that all EU states would have to maintain an ‘opt-out’ list of consumers who do not wish to receive spam. EuroISPA wants this changed to an ‘opt-in’ list of volunteer spammees, and wants an amendment added to ban the ‘harvesting’ of email addresses, a common practice among spammers.
The harvest amendment needs the support of 29 Parliament members (MEPs) to be tabled. Today is the last chance for MEP’s to table amendments to Article 7 before Parliament’s first reading next Thursday. The vote will be a ‘roll-call’, meaning a list of how each MEP voted will be published after the ballot. After that, the directive goes to the European Commission and the Council of Ministers before returning to Parliament for its second reading. The legislation is likely before the end of the year.
