Regulating Spam: opting in or opting out? Available to Purchase

Commercial non‐solicited communications are a growing problem bringing calls for tighter anti‐Spam legislation. This paper compares the advantages and disadvantages of opt‐in and opt‐out schemes. An opt‐in scheme would provide the best protection for citizens’ privacy and property. However, the fragmented way in which EU legislation is being implemented shows how the geographic limitations of the legislation may make opt‐in partially useless and harmful for competition. This paper therefore concludes that opt‐out with “public” international lists are the best compromise.