EU Calls Member Countries to Step Up Fight against Spam

The EC (European Commission) has appealed to the governments of member countries to do more to combat spammers, as data from a recent research reveal that majority of Europeans continue to get unsolicited e-mails.

While all spamming activities have been banned across the European Union (EU) since 2002, a new Eurobarometer survey reveals that 65% of people in EU continue to get spam regularly. Besides, spam levels vary from one nation to another as high; for instance -Portugal receive a high of 83% spam whereas Slovakia receive the lowest at 31%.

Viviane Reding, Commissioner of Information Society and Media, said - it is important to intensify the battle against spammers and ensure that the EU embraces new laws, which endow strong criminal and civil penalties on them, as Reported by New Europe on October 11, 2009.

Reding adds that if the spam menace could be ended in Europe, it would show the way to the remaining world for doing the same as a lot of spam received in Europe come from those regions.

Furthermore, industry figures show that one in 6 junk e-mails coming to Europe are from the USA, thus prompting the Commission to urge America to enhance global cooperation to implement consumer protection legislations.

While estimates vary, a majority of Internet security companies say that 75%-95% of the total e-mail comprises junk messages.

An EU sponsored research analyzed over 140 enforcement cases from 22 European countries, showing huge variations in spam law implementation. The countries reporting the maximum number of instances were Slovakia (39), Spain (39) and Romania (20).

The study also shows that although many nations have initiated the process of implementing Europe's prohibition of spam along with imposing fines in recent years, the total number of cases tried and sanctions imposed against violators of law vary significantly.

As an effort to halt spam, the largest amounts of fines were imposed in the Netherlands (€1,000,000), Italy (€570,000) and Spain (€30,000). On the contrary, convicted spammers belonging to nations like Ireland, Latvia and Romania were fined a paltry sum varying between hundreds and thousands of Euros.

Related article: E-Crime Reporting Format To Be Launched in July

» SPAMfighter News - 10/28/2009