First court victory for anti-spam legislation!

It's a small victory, but it could have enormous repercussions. Channel Islands businessman Nigel Roberts had enough of the unsolicited email marketing emanating from the Scottish company Media Logistics UK. Their contract car hire and fax broadcasting emails did not impress Mr Robert's at all. He claimed that Media Logistics UK were in breach of the Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, and duly filed a claim through the 'small claim' process. Although acknowledging the claim, Media Logistics UK did not defend the claim and a judge subsequently ruled in favour of Mr Roberts, awarding him the full £270 plus a £30 filing fee. Roberts said ...

"This may be a tiny victory but perhaps now spammers will begin to realise that people don't have to put up with their e-mail inboxes being filled with unwanted junk."

So is £300 fine a CREDIBLE THREAT? Frankly no, many companies will see this as business risk they are prepared to take. But what if we begin to see some of the class action cases so prevalent in the US? The multipliers can be enormous when you consider the size of the membership databases belonging to Amazon, Ebay etc. Convince 1000 people to file a claim and the numbers look a lot more impressive. Is this likely to happen, no. Could it happen? Let's here from the lawyers!