Ian Eiloart wrote the following on 11/03/2009 11:42:
Under article 13 of EU DIRECTIVE 2002/58/EC, I think that the sending of UCE is illegal in every member state of the EU, which exemption where the recipient is an existing customer of the organisation sending the email. Even then, the sender has to give an opt out option with every email, and may only market "similar products or services".
I don't know anywhere that this is properly enforced, though.
There was a lot of flexibility in how the Member States were allowed to right the directive into law. Some went with opt-in, others with opt-out. And in some cases (probably most) the recepient was defined as the actual subscriber, so your business address was not considered to be a personal address. However enforcement and implementation still varies widely over the EU. As I mentioned at RIPE 57 we would be interested in hearing from people about their own experiences across the RIPE region regarding legislation and enforcement. If there was interest time could easily be put aside in the WG session at RIPE 58 for a number of short updates? Brian.