UK Spam laws

I came across an article about strengthening the UK anti-spam laws introduced back in 2003. The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations was introduced to implement the Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications 2002/58/EC. Yet, three years on, the law has been criticised for its weakness in not stopping spam being sent to businesses. From a legal standpoint, this is interesting given that the regulations were originally intended to prevent spam being sent to individuals. In its latest annual report (pdf), the UK Information Commissioner's Office took the view that the powers confered under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations were insufficient to deal with the problem of spam. This is particularly the case when spam originates from countries outside the EU. Certainly, more can be done, but one will wait and see whether the government consider revising its laws.