Dutch levy first fines against spammers

AMSTERDAM - The Dutch telecom and postal watchdog OPTA has levied fines as high as 42,500 euros ($80,160) against several individuals and small companies for sending out spam messages.

OPTA said in a statement on Tuesday the fines were for spam -- a term widely used for unsolicited commercial emails, often hawking products to combat sexual dysfunction or promote weight loss -- sent to both mobile phones and to email addresses.

The fines were the first by OPTA against spammers. The body said they were levied in line with tougher European Union standards to combat a problem that is estimated to cost European businesses upwards of 2.5 billion euros a year.

The EU has tried to fight spam by introducing a ban on unsolicited emails in 2002, but the EU law is weakly enforced and several countries have not yet introduced it.

Anti-spam group the Spamhaus Project has listed Britain among its top 10 list of spamming countries.

- REUTERS