This post was written by Benjamin Waltuch, Adv.

Worldwide Anti-Spam legislation is now more than six years old. However, the amount of spam that we all receive daily continues to grow despite the installation of spam blocking software. The Israeli Knesset has approved an “Opt-In” anti spam statute in its communication law which was modeled after European Union’s Directive 2002/58/EC and requires affirmative permission before a commercial message is allowed. This is much more extreme than the CAN-SPAM Act in the US, which requires that a sender must provide a method to be removed from the mailing list or an “Opt-Out” method but does not require specific affirmative permission.

The “kick” is that the Israeli Anti-Spam Law provides for a minimum liquidated civil damage amount of approximately US$250 (one thousand New Israeli Shekels) PER EMAIL without any necessity to prove that the recipient was damaged in any way by the email. The law allows for a recipient to sue the sender in small claims court and also amended the Israeli class action law to allow for a cause of action under this anti spam statute to be certified for class actions. In addition, the statute provides for criminal fines of approximately $50,000 for sending emails without consent and approximately $17,000 for emails that do not follow the procedural requirements spelled out below. Finally, the law states that the individuals who comprise the management of a company are considered liable for any violation of the law with the civil penalty of approximately $17,000. Upon violation of the law by a company, it is presumed that the members of management of that company have not fulfilled their duty to keep the law.Continue Reading Israel’s Anti-Spam Legislation with a Kick – This Could Cost You!!