Submitted by Mike Grenville on Wed, 23 Jul 2003 15:20

The GSM Association (GSMA), the trade association representing the world’s GSM mobile operators, today welcomed the European Commission’s recent initiative to combat ’spamming’. However it raised concerns that without consumer education as to what constituted ‘soft opt-in’, legitimate marketing of companies’ own product and services could be perceived as unsolicited communications to the detriment of European companies.

“ The problem and potential impact of spamming reaches far beyond European borders, and beyond SMS, as operators globally evolve and roll out the next generation of mobile data services such as Multimedia Messaging Service - MMS,” said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSM Association. “Our board is looking very seriously at ways that our members can collectively combat this growing problem on a proactive, global basis.”

GSM Europe, the regional interest group of the GSM Association, agrees that the new EU provisions can help to limit the problem - if transposed in an effective and fair manner.

“ Not only does spam irritate our customers,” said Kaisu Karvala, Chair of GSM Europe, “it also impinges on operators’ businesses by impacting their networks from a range of commercial and technical perspectives. Most critical of all is the negative impact it has on customer relations, as discontented customers often blame their operator for the inconvenience of spam-SMS.”

While welcoming the Commission’s initiative however, GSM Europe stresses the importance of balanced information to European consumers and businesses on the new EU rules to fight spam. Any campaign or action by the Commission and Member States directed to the general public should not only clarify the new opt-in obligations under article 13.1, but also the rights obtained by companies to market own, similar products and services (article 13.2).

Apart from various proactive efforts undertaken by individual GSME members to reduce spam in their mobile networks, GSM Europe is currently working on a Draft set of Recommendation on spamming in mobile networks which coincides with several of the issues raised by the Commission.

www.gsmeurope.org