30 July, 2009
Anti-Spam Bill Rebuffed
Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan recently rejected a long-awaited anti-spam bill that had been drafted by the National Communications Commission (NCC) and approved by the Executive Yuan. The bill, entitled Regulations Governing Electronic Commercial Mail, called for restrictions on senders of commercial e-mail, requirements on ISPs to initiate measures to prevent unsolicited commercial e-mail, and civil remedies for victims of spam. The bill allowed recipients of spam to file civil suits against senders. Damages of between NT$500 and NT$2,000 (US$15 – US$62) could be sought per spam e-mail. The bill also prohibited the use of alphabetical spam and required senders of commercial e-mail to provide recipients cost-free opt-in and opt-out mechanisms.
Critics of the bill raised concerns that advertisers and ISPs would be unfairly targeted in civil actions rather than the original authors of the spam. The NCC, the competent authority under the regulations, contends, however, that advertisers and ISPs have a degree of responsibility in preventing spam and therefore should potentially bear some liability.
Concerns had also been raised that the courts could be flooded with civil claims by individuals seeking monetary damages. It had been suggested, in response to this concern, that the regulations should include administrative remedies that empowered and obligated the NCC to investigate complaints. The NCC, however, opposes extending the scope of its powers and responsibilities to this degree citing the need to protect personal information and the successes in curbing spam of the civil remedy approach under the US CAN-Spam Act.
It has been estimated that Taiwan residents received over 110 billion spam emails in 2008, or 29 spam emails per person daily on average.
The Legislative Yuan has requested that the NCC address the concerns that it has raised and submit a revised version of the bill in the future.
A version of this article appears in the Computer Law and Security Review. For more information about this topic, please contact K. Mark Brown.
