Business and consumer watchdogs urge the government to legislate as unwanted e-mail reaches 'critical proportions'
Hong Kong must outlaw spam e-mails or watch businesses lose billions of dollars a year as the city lags behind other countries in tackling the menace, the government has been warned.
Businessmen, industry players and consumer watchdogs have overwhelmingly called for a law against senders of spam e-mail, as part of a package of measures to stop the tidal wave of unsolicited electronic messages.
Many of them pointed out that Hong Kong was already falling behind other countries such as Australia, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, the US, and European Union members in bringing in legislation.
The urgent need for legislation was described in a series of forceful submissions made to a consultation process on anti-spam legislation, organised by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority.
Software giant Microsoft, in a submission from its Cyberport offices, said the spam problem in Hong Kong was 'reaching critical proportions' and costing Hong Kong consumers and businesses about $10 billion a year.