The Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) has accepted R65 000 from Ketler Investments to finally settle costs in a long-standing matter after Ketler approached the courts to force ISPA to take its name off the "Hall of Shame".
This follows last June's South Gauteng High Court dismissal, with costs, of Ketler Investments' application to censor ISPA's "Hall of Shame". Ketler applied to the court in 2012 to try to force ISPA, which represents 168 companies, to remove it from a Web page - the Hall of Shame - listing South African companies found guilty of distributing spam.
Ketler has now settled the cost issue, with a R65 000 offer. The court found Ketler breached the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act by sending unsolicited commercial communications, even after undertaking to ISPA that it would not do so after originally being listed in the ISPA Hall of Shame in 2009 as a repeat offender.
Head-on
"As Ketler Investments and others have found to their cost, ISPA will defend its rights to take action against spammers in SA and, if necessary, pursue litigation aimed at protecting the rights of South African Internet consumers and ensuring a safe, accessible and equitable local Web," says Dominic Cull, ISPA regulatory advisor.
Cull confirms ISPA has received a signed undertaking from Ketler Investments to stop spamming. "The undertaking to observe best practice in the sending of commercial e-mail commits Ketler Investments to ensuring it has properly obtained the consent of any consumer to which it sends commercial e-mail," says ISPA in a statement.
The watchdog adds Ketler has deleted e-mails from its system for which it did not have proof of consent to market to these addresses.
"This is probably the first substantial penalty paid by a local sender of unsolicited commercial e-mail communications, even if it is indirectly. There is at least one less unwanted inbox intruder for a lot of South African Internet users after the conclusion of this matter, and the implementation of the Protection of Personal Information over the next few years could well tip the scales if people exercise the rights it gives them," says Cull.
The Protection of Personal Information Act has yet to come into effect, but once president Jacob Zuma announces an implementation date, companies will have between one and three years to get their houses in order. It is SA's first consolidated piece of legislation detailing how individual and company information must be dealt with. It is also expected to cut down on spam, because it makes provision for an opt-in regime when it comes to electronic communication from companies.
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