6 6 June 2004

News:

The risk that spammers could use an anti-spam registry as a source of legitimate email addresses to send more spam leaves consumers “spammed if we do a registry and spammed if we don’t”, according to US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Timothy Muris last week.

An interlocutory judgement in the District Court of Arnhem, Holland, has the potential to force open the European gambling market. Gambling industry experts agree that the judgement against gaming operator, De Lotto, could in theory give rise to legal challenges against other national monopolies such as Camelot, which has a legal monopoly to operate the UK’s National Lottery.

Sponsored search engine links must be clearly identified as paid for following an adjudication by the Advertising Standards Authority. A complaint that search result listings from ISP Wanadoo (formerly Freeserve) could mislead consumers by not clearly identifying sponsored links was upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority last week.

Features:

The Ladbrokes court victory in Arnhem against Dutch state lottery operator De Lotto has opened up a further crack in the European market for gambling services.

E-Money Directive

Government may be forced to amend Data Protection Act 1998

Computer-implemented inventions

Ofcom keen to police the internet

Dates for your diary

The FOI will have a dramatic effect on the culture and conduct of public sector procurement. Some private tenderers have expressed concerns that commercially sensitive information could be made available to their competitors. This article considers whether the FOI's exemptions will give them sufficient protection.

From 25 June, businesses who ignore the new TPS list and make unsolicited sales and marketing calls to companies who have ‘opted out’ face unlimited fines and their directors could be held personally liable. This article reviews the law on telemarketing.

The Directive concerning unfair B2C commercial practices in the Internal Market will affect all consumer-facing businesses. This article considers the meaning of "unfair commercial practices" but notes that, as the latest draft abandons the country of origin principle, traders will have to consider the unfair practices laws of each Member State to which they offer goods or services.

The European Council reached political agreement in May on the proposal for a Directive concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the Internal Market (the “Directive”). The Directive will now be formally adopted by the Council, and will then be sent to the European Parliament for a second reading1. Although many individual elements of the draft Directive are familiar in English law, such a general Directive is a radical new departure. This article examines the latest text.

The latest addition to the legislative minefield regulating SMS marketing is the CAP Help Note on Mobile Marketing, prepared in consultation with MMA and ICSTIS, issued in May 2004. This article reviews the contents of the Help Note and provides a list of do’s and don’ts for mobile marketers.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have transformed their economies in the last thirteen years. This article focuses on the development of the legal and business environment in Estonia.

This article examines the failure by Lord Coe to obtain an interim injunction against two Sunday tabloids on the basis of the “Campbell privacy test” and finds that the two cases were different in fundamental respects

Mobile operators face a prolonged period of uncertainty.