A joint Knesset Economics Committee and Science and Technology Committee have toughened anti-spam legislation aimed at restricting advertising via SMS, e-mail, fax, and automated dialing.
The joint committee approved two amendments. One amendment stipulates that an advertiser will not be allowed to send ads without prior explicit approval of the addressee. An advertiser may contact a business owner addressee once to offer to send advertisements on his behalf.
The second amendment allows messages to be sent to an addressee if there were prior commercial relations between the parties, on the condition that the advertiser gives the addressee the opportunity to refuse receiving ads.
Joint committee chairman MK Moshe Kahlon (Likud) said it was important to strike the right balance between commercial entities seeking to promote sales and the right of privacy, which is violated by spam.
In January, the ministerial committee for legislation approved an amendment to the Communications Law permitting people can sue for up to NIS 1,000 in compensation for being sent spam, without the need to prove damages.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 2, 2007
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