Groups join to ban Spam.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: Up front: news, trends & analysis - Brief Article

Three prominent consumer groups in the United States have joined forces to petition the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to issue new rules that will dramatically reduce junk e-mail referred to as "spam." The Telecommunications and Research Action Center (TRAC), the National Consumers League (NCL), and Consumer Action will unveil a new tool that will enable fed-up e-mail users to send spam horror stories to the FTC in support of their petition to "Ban the Spam."

TRAC, NCL, and Consumer Action filed a petition with the FTC requesting that unsolicited commercial e-mail (commonly referred to as spam) be considered an unfair and deceptive trade practice that causes harm to consumers. The petition asks for a FTC rule that defines unsolicited commercial e-mail as "deceptive and therefore unlawful" if it

* misrepresents the sender (in source or routing information)

* misrepresents the...