NZ's Anti-Spam Law Effective email campaigns need to comply with New Zealand's Anti Spam laws. Here are some tips to making your email communication legal....

Spam is the generic term for the electronic commercial 'junk mail' you receive without having requested it. This includes unwanted messages sent to people's email accounts or mobile phones. The negative effects of spam are significant and far-reaching. Current estimates suggest that around 120 billion spam messages are sent every day. These emails clog up the Internet, disrupt email delivery, reduce business productivity, raise Internet access fees, irritate recipients and erode people's confidence in using email.

These messages are essentially commercial in nature and often sent in bulk. Some spam is sent by legitimate businesses inviting the recipient to buy a product or service. Other spam may attempt to trick people into divulging their bank account or credit card details. Many spam messages also contain offensive or fraudulent material or spread computer viruses.

So it is fair to say that we all hate spam. New Zealand created the Act as a way of joining the international "war" against spam. The Act is an effective way to encourage organisation's and businesses to adopt email best practices, and enables action against those who don't comply.

When planning to send emails, you need to make sure that you:

gain prior consent before sending any email
record when, where and how that consent was given, in order to produce evidence should any issues arise
clearly identify who the email is from and supply contact details, which must be valid for at least 30 days from the date of the email
provide a free, clear and easy to use mechanism for people to unsubscribe from your messages, which also must remain valid for at least 30 days
action all requests to unsubscribe within 5 working days from the date of receipt

NOTE: This is a general guide only. If you have any doubt whether your business emails comply with the law, we suggest you consult your lawyer.

If you have any questions you can contact us at info@antispam.govt.nz

Anti-Spam Compliance Unit
Department of Internal Affairs | PO Box 805 | Wellington 6140 | Phone: (04) 495 7200

For more information about:
What we doing about it in New Zealand
The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007
Anti-Spam enforcement
Anti-Spam video
visit: http://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/wpg_URL/Services-Anti-Spam-Index?OpenDocument