Relates to unauthorized and misleading electronic mail

Title of bill

An act to amend the business corporation law, in relation to unauthorized and misleading electronic mail

Purpose

This bill would prohibit the transmission of certain unauthorized and misleading e-mails.

Summary of provisions

Section 1 amends the business corporation law by adding a new Article 18.

§ 1801 contains definitions.

§ 1802 prohibits the transmission of in-state commercial e-mails using an unauthorized third party domain or obscuring the email's point of origin, or containing false or misleading information in the subject line.

§ 1803 provides damages recoverable by such e-mail recipients are $100 for the first offense and $1,000 for each subsequent offense.

Section 2 provides this act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law.

Existing law

This is a new law.

Justification

Unsolicited bulk electronic mail, or "spam" is becoming increasingly problematic for New Yorkers. Unsolicited e-mails containing "get rich quick" schemes and pornographic materials are those types that are particularly dangerous, and both combined account for almost two- thirds of all spam.

Spam has significant costs for internet service providers who must pay for increased bandwidth as a result of areas eaten up by bulk e-mail, processing the large capacities spam occupies in email accounts, and consumers who choose to leave ISPs because of too much spam. ISPs pass these costs on to their customers. Businesses of all kinds must pay for ever-changing software to filter spam from their systems, and employees must spend time sifting through their e-mails to find those that are or are not legitimate.

Spam generators, in numerous cases have used deceptive marketing practices, notably using an unrelated subject line to "hook" the recipient, routing e-mails through third-party computers so they appear to be coming from other businesses, and using invalid return addresses that instead of unsubscribing from the service, simply notify the spammer they have found a legitimate e-mail address.

This bill mirrors a Washington law that has withstood constitutional challenges. The Washington portion of this bill forbids commercial e-mail with misleading subject lines or with a disguised point of origin. The Washington State Supreme Court upheld the law in July 2001 and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the case in October 2001.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, these court decisions have bolstered state efforts to enact uniform legislation nationwide.

Legislative history

New bill

Fiscal implications

None

Local fiscal implications

None

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law.