Spammer Sued Under EU Law

IngramJames writes "A British businessman has successfully sued a company who sent him a spam email. The case was settled out of court, so is not binding, but it's promising that the spammers had to cough up £300 for a single email! It's being reported (in a much more readable way) on The Register and the BBC." From the BBC article: "Three years ago the EU passed an anti-spam law, the directive on privacy and telecommunications, which gave individuals the right to fight the growing tide of unwanted e-mail by allowing them to claim damages."

Comments

"DIY Legal Defence"?

[inphinity]

Roberts is also preparing a series of legal templates based on his case which he will make available for free on his campaigning website found at www.spamlegalaction.co.uk. He told us it will be a "DIY spam self-defence kit". The hope is that without any specialised legal knowledge, even everyday Internet users will be able to sue companies that send them unsolicited email.

This somewhat disturbs me. Although I hate spam as much as the next guy, how bad would it be if someone could just fill out some forms and collect $500 from a company that sent a supposedly "unwanted" email?

I realize that it's not quite that simple, but once a legal precedent is set, how far could someone take this? Again, with precedent, one could theoretically bankrupt a company who didn't bother to use a reputable email ad agency, which raises another interesting question: Who's really at fault here? Most large corporations don't send out their own solicitations, but they do provide marching orders to do so. So in a case like this, are they at fault, or is the company that actually sent the spam?