Spam crackdown ordered across Europe

Tougher tactics are needed to crack down on spam, according to the European Commission.

National authorities should step up their actions to prosecute illegal online activities, the EC said, warning that spammers and spyware-mongers inside and outside the EU are still causing harm.

Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said it is now time to turn the political concern about spam into "concrete actions".

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Using EU anti-spam legislation, Dutch authorities have managed to cut domestic spam by 85 per cent, she said - and added that she wants other countries to achieve similar results through "more efficient enforcement".

But in a statement she added: "I will revisit this issue again next year to see whether additional legislative measures against spam are required."

Estimates put the volume of spam at somewhere between 54 per cent and 85 per cent of all email, and clear-up costs as high as $40bn worldwide. As well as a nuisance it is being used by criminals to lure the unwary into revealing their sensitive data and finances via phishing emails.

The EC said legislative tools to fight these threats already exist - but that implementation is still a problem in most EU member states.

The Commission said it will also revisit the legislative framework when it introduces legislative proposals to strengthen user privacy and security in 2007.

The proposals may oblige service providers to notify of security breaches that lead to personal data loss or to interruptions in service, it said.