Brussels, 07/02/2005 (Agence Europe) - 13 European countries have agreed to share information and pursue complaints across borders in a pan-European drive to combat “spam” electronic mail. The competent services of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands and Spain will work together in a contact network of spam enforcement authorities (CNSA), set up at the initiative of the Commission following its Communication of January 2004 on unsolicited e-mail (EUROPE 27 January 2004). The CNSA facilitates the sharing of information and best practices in enforcing anti-spam laws between the national authorities of EU Member States and of the EEA. They will cooperate in investigating complaints about cross-border spam from anywhere within the EU, so as to make it easier to identify and prosecute spammers anywhere in Europe.
In a press statement, the Commission welcomed the results already obtained in the anti-spam struggle and highlighted the example of the French data protection authority acted together with the Belgian authority to stop a spam operation. In another, cross-border cooperation produced a successful prosecution against an organisation using spam techniques to lure consumers into a premium rate services dialling European Commission.
Welcoming the agreement, Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding urged authorities in all EU Member States to join the agreement. “Enforcement authorities in Member States must be able to deal effectively with spam from other EU countries”, she said, “even though at present most spam originates from outside the EU. In parallel, we are working on cooperation with third countries both bilaterally and in international fora like the OECD and the International Telecommunication Union”.