The following is a simplified outline of this Act:
• This Act sets up a scheme for regulating commercial email and other types of commercial electronic messages.
• Unsolicited commercial electronic messages must not be sent.
• Commercial electronic messages must include information about the individual or organisation who authorised the sending of the message.
• Commercial electronic messages must contain a functional unsubscribe facility.
• Address - harvesting software must not be supplied, acquired or used.
• An electronic address list produced using address - harvesting software must not be supplied, acquired or used.
• The main remedies for breaches of this Act are civil penalties and injunctions.
Note: The Telecommunications Act 1997 contains additional provisions about commercial electronic messages. Those provisions include Part 6 (industry codes and standards), Part 26 (investigations), Part 27 (information - gathering powers) and Part 28 (enforcement).