Spam email challenge wins £750 damages
8 Mar 07
Man successfully claims junk mail breaches privacy rules
A man has won compensation of £750 after being sent a spam email in a rare action of damages.
Gordon Dick, who works for Nominet, an internet registry company, was awarded the compensation and legal costs of £616.66 at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. He told the court that his email address had been taken from an online technical discussion group called Nomsteer and used by another company Transcom. He claimed that this was a breach of his privacy under the Data Protection Act and the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations.
Mr Dick said he decided to take the company to court when Transcom claimed it had done nothing wrong when he complained about the email.
William Smith from Transcom claimed the damagers were only awarded by default because the company decided it would be too expensive to contest the action.
Mr Dick has now set up a website giving free advice on taking spammers to court.
In December 2005 Stirlingshire-based Media Logistics (UK) Ltd was ordered to pay £250 to internet Businessman Nigel Roberts in a similar action brought in England: see http://www.journalonline.co.uk/news/1002590.aspx .