High Court action is being taken against alleged spammer, Brendan Battles and Image Marketing Group Limited, under two statements of claim. The Department of Internal Affairs’ Anti-Spam Compliance Unit is seeking financial penalties of $200,000 against the company principal and $500,000 against the company itself.

The alleged is being charged for sending over 44,000 SMS messages to mobile phones on the Telecom and Vodafone networks in New Zealand. He is also being charged for sending unsolicited emails to recipients in New Zealand.

Companies should be wary when using email addresses purchased from database marketing companies as proper consent may not have been received from the individuals who own the email addresses.

Under the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 it is illegal to send unsolicited emails or messages for the purpose of promoting or selling commercial products or services. Penalties carry a maximum of $500,000 for organisations and $200,000 for individuals.

Cited from http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=9136