The German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine reports about plans from the governing Social-Democrats (SPD) to make spamming an offence in Germany. According to the SPD, merely introducing fines is not enough, and spamming should become an offence, with penalties or a prison sentence. The working group on Telecommunication and Mail of the SPD did not yet decide on the length of the desired sentences. Germany will implement the anti-spam legislation in a specific law against unfair competition that also forbids unsolicited faxing, not in the simultaneous pending revision of the Telecommunication Law.
According to SPD-representative Ulrich Kelber prison sentences are necessary to be able to stop the biggest spammers, that send out millions of unsolicited commercial mails. 2 or 3 of the biggest spammers from the TOP-50 are suspected to stem from Germany. The opposing Christian-Democrat and Conservative parties (CDU/CSU) do not wish to introduce penal sanctions, but stick to (administrative) fines.
Like many other EU-countries, Germany has not implemented the new European anti-spam legislation in time. The deadline for implementing the directive on privacy and electronic communications (200/58/EC) passed on 31 October 2004. Only 8 countries were successful. On 17 December 2003, the European Commission took the second step in infringement procedures, sending 'reasoned opinions' to Germany and Belgium, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal. Spain was only just-in-time to escape the infringement-procedure. On 17 February 2004, the deadline for responding passed, but the Commission has not yet announced which countries will be referred to the European Court of Justice.
FAZ, 'Gefangnisstrafen fur Mail-Mull' (22.03.2004)
http://www.faz.net/s/Rub21DD40806F8345FAA42A456821D3EDFF/Doc~E79697E48...
European Commission announces infringement procedures (17.12.2003)
http://europa.eu.int/information_society/topics/ecomm/doc/all_about/im...