Missouri’s attorney general announced on Thursday the first lawsuits under that state’s new anti-spam law.
The suits, filed in St. Louis City Circuit Court, stem from the anti-spam law Missouri enacted in late August. The law requires that commercial senders carry an “adv:” label and comply immediately with unsubscribe requests. It defines spam as any commercial e-mail from a person or business that does not have a pre-existing business relationship with the recipient. Violators are subject to prosecution by the state and civil penalties of $5,000 per e-mail, up to $25,000 per day.
Jay Nixon, Missouri’s attorney general, accuses two Florida-based e-mailers with violating these provisions. In the first case, the attorney general says Palm Beach resident Phillip Nixon e-mailed five unsolicited offers for architectural plans to the state’s anti-spam e-mail address, nospam@moago.org. The suit claims the messages were not labeled and did not stop when requested.
The second suit was filed against a Boca Raton company called Fundetective.com. The action alleges the company sent out a number of unsolicited messages advertising short-term loans and personal information gathering services. Again, the attorney general’s office said the e-mails were not labeled as required under the law.
Both suits seek the maximum $5,000 penalty per violation, in addition to injunctions against further unsolicited commercial e-mail that violates Missouri law.
Missouri is one of 35 states to enact anti-spam measures. Earlier this month, California enacted a tough anti-spam law that requires e-mail providers and advertisers to receive “direct consent” from consumers they e-mail. Many commercial e-mailers complain the hodgepodge of state laws make full compliance nearly impossible. The industry’s trade groups want proposed federal anti-spam legislation to supercede state laws and create a universal standard.
RELATED NEWS AND ANALYSIS
-
Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
December 04, 2020
-
Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 18, 2020
-
Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
November 10, 2020
-
Top 10 AIOps Companies
FEATURE | By Samuel Greengard,
November 05, 2020
-
What is Text Analysis?
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 02, 2020
-
How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 29, 2020
-
Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 23, 2020
-
The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
October 16, 2020
-
Top 10 Chatbot Platforms
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
October 07, 2020
-
Finding a Career Path in AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
October 05, 2020
-
CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
September 25, 2020
-
Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 25, 2020
-
Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2020
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
September 22, 2020
-
NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
September 18, 2020
-
Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 14, 2020
-
Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 13, 2020
-
IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 11, 2020
-
Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
September 09, 2020
-
Anticipating The Coming Wave Of AI Enhanced PCs
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 05, 2020
-
The Critical Nature Of IBM’s NLP (Natural Language Processing) Effort
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
August 14, 2020