Anti-spam legislation has consequences for Australian business

New anti-spam legislation, currently before Federal Parliament, will impose a number of obligations on organisations in the field of e-commerce. The Spam Bill 2003 is designed to tackle the proliferation of unsolicited emails and other messages such as SMS text, used by marketeers that not only clog-up recipients' inboxes and slow productivity, but often carry offensive and illegal content such as pornography and financial scams.

While the new Bill is unlikely to have much of an impact on the bulk of spam, which originates overseas, it will have some consequences for organisations and the policing of their employees' emails. The new law imposes a number of obligations on organisations in relation to emails being sent on behalf of the organisation by an employee.