New Spam laws: how do they affect you?
By Dennis Rutzou

The new Spam laws, which came into affect in April this year, potentially affect any business which uses e-mail to stay in touch with clients, prospects, suppliers, or anyone else important to them. As you would expect, the Spam Act is quite complicated, so here we’ve tried to give you the basics as we see them. Please note that you should seek advice as to how the Act particularly affects you and your business.

1. The laws apply to e-mail, mobile phone SMS & MMS, and instant messaging, but not to telephone calls, or faxes

2. The laws don’t apply to purely factual messages, educational institutions, political parties, religious organisations, charities or Government bodies

3. To send a message to someone that is of a commercial nature you must have their consent.

This consent can be either inferred or express:

• Inferred consent applies if their details are conspicuously published, if the information is deemed to be part of their job (e.g. journalists receiving media releases from PR people!), etc
• Express consent applies if you ask someone in person or over the phone and they give their permission, or if they sign up for a mailing list, etc
• Technically, it is not OK to send an e-mail asking for the consent of those people on your database, unless you’ve had prior active communication with them
• Privacy laws still apply, you must supply your full contact details, and you must give the recipients a chance to opt-out of your database. The penalties for non-compliance range from a formal warning to fines of up to $11,000 per e-mail, so it’s worth checking that you comply!

July 2004

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