168/04    12 October 2004

An international action plan to communicate and cooperate on enforcement action to tackle spam has been agreed by 19 bodies from 15 countries attending the London international spam enforcement workshop organised by the OFT and the US Federal Trade Commission.

 The London Action Plan aims to develop international links to address spam and spam-related problems. Participating government bodies have made commitments to actions including:

• encouraging communication and coordination between agencies to achieve efficient and effective enforcement
• regular conference calls to discuss: cases, legislative developments, investigative techniques, ways to address obstacles to enforcement, consumer and business education projects
• encouraging dialogue between government agencies and private sector representatives to promote ways to support government agencies in bringing spam cases and pursue their own initiatives to fight spam

The action plan is open for other interested government agencies and for appropriate private sector representatives to join in order to expand the network of bodies working together to combat spam.

Commitments in the action plan made by participating private-sector representatives include:

• establishing a designated contact within an organisation to facilitate responses and requests for enforcement related assistance from spam enforcement agencies
• work with other private sector representatives to establish a resource list of individuals within particular sectors working on spam enforcement
• participation in conference calls to assist law enforcement agencies in bringing spam cases and provide information on cases, new technology, trends in internet and spam and general data on spam as an early warning mechanism for government agencies
• assisting in training for government agencies to help their investigations and to bring spam cases
• assisting government agencies in understanding the best ways to request information from them.

The OFT and FTC will work closely with others towards implementing the steps in the action plan.

John Vickers, OFT Chairman, said:

'The London action plan demonstrates a true international commitment to fighting spam in the interests of consumers and business.'

NOTES

1 The following bodies have signed the action plan:
Office of Fair Trading (UK), Information Commissioner Office (UK), Federal Trade Commission (US), Australian Communications Authority, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Dutch Telecommunications Regulator, Korean Information Security Agency, Ministry of Economic, Trade and Industry (MERI), Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (Japan), Japan Fair Trade Commission, Spanish Data Protection Agency, National Consumer Service (Chile), State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Switzerland), General Inspectorate for Consumer Protection of Hungary, Finnish Consumer Agency and Ombudsman, Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman, Swedish Consumer Protection Agency, Data Protection Commissioner (Ireland) and Communications Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Lithuania.

2 Private sector representatives invited to participate in the action plan include: financial institutions, internet service providers, telecommunications companies, information security software providers, mobile operators, courier services, commercial mail receiving agencies, consumer organisations, payment systems providers, credit reporting agencies, and domain name registrars and registers.

3 See press release for further information on the OFT and FTC International spam enforcement workshop.