The Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) has cautiously welcomed the federal government's announcement today that it intends to ban unsolicited commercial e-mail, warning that the legislation could have undesirable side-effects.

"This is an issue where if they get it wrong could have a huge impact on business, particularly small businesses," said Jodie Sangster, the ADMA's manager of legal and regulatory affairs. "For that reason, it's in the government's interest to make sure they fully consult and take into account the businesses it's going to impact on."

The ADMA is heartened by the government's commitment to consult with the industry on developing a workable system, she added.

In particular, the ADMA is concerned that the government intends to mandate an opt-in regime for all unsolicited e-mails, where companies can only send marketing material to customers who have requested to receive it.

The government's insistence on opt-in is understandable in a business-to-consumer environment, said Sangster, "provided that the legislation is drafted well and the definitions are sufficiently tight, then it can work in that environment."

However, in the business-to-business arena, "if you're going to go for an opt-in regime, it's very difficult for a small or medium-sized business to get themselves established using this medium," she said. This could lead to a situation where large and well-known e-mail marketers would continue to thrive, but smaller companies would be "unable to compete . . . because they haven't got access to a medium," she explained.

"We're concerned to ensure that small-to-medium-sized businesses have an opportunity to at least inform someone that they exist, and that would be more along the lines of a soft opt-in approach where they're allowed to make contact, but then if they don't hear anything from that company, they really shouldn't target them again."

Sangster questions whether legislation is an appropriate response to the spam problem. "I think a very small percentage of spam comes from within Australia," she said. "Using legislation to legislate against such a small proportion . . . I'm not really sure it's going to solve the problem. The problem is so much wider and really international measures need to be thought about."

Many organisations, such as charities, could find themselves adversely affected by this legislation, warned Sangster. "You're going to see an awful lot of regulation of markets that's not intended to be caught by the legislation, but they will be caught because they're sending unsolicited e-mails. You'll see a lot of those affected because of the bad practices of a very small number of people," she said.

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