High court upholds e-mail law

Associated Press

OLYMPIA — The state Supreme Court has upheld Washington’s tough law against "spam," or junk e-mail.

Thursday’s unanimous ruling overturns King County Superior Court Judge Palmer Robinson’s dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Attorney General Christine Gregoire against Jason Heckel of Salem, Ore.

Robinson had ruled that the commercial e-mail law enacted in 1998 violated the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution because it was unduly restrictive and burdensome on legitimate business.

"The only burden the act places on spammers is the requirement of truthfulness, a requirement that does not burden commerce at all but actually facilitates it by eliminating fraud and deception," Justice Susan Owens wrote for the court.

The law bans commercial e-mail with misleading information in the subject line, an invalid reply address or a disguised path of transmission across the Internet.

The decision reinstates the lawsuit, which seeks civil penalties of $2,000 per violation and an injunction barring Heckel from sending spam.

"Consumers and businesses pay a heavy price in money and lost time because of those who use the Internet to distribute deceptive commercial mailings to people who never asked for them," Gregoire said.

Gregoire said the case was the first involving a state law designed to protect Internet users from deceptive commercial e-mail.

Heckel and his company, Natural Instincts, were accused of sending 100,000 to 1 million pieces of unsolicited e-mail a week advertising a $39.95 package called "How to Profit From the Internet."

In June 1998, the Consumer Protection Division of Gregoire’s office began getting complaints that such messages contained misleading subject lines and false transmission paths. The state warned Heckel, but the complaints kept coming in.

In October 1998, the state sued Heckel. Among the allegations were the use of "Did I get the right e-mail address?" for a subject line, which state lawyers called a ruse designed to fool people into thinking the message came from an acquaintance.

The state also accused Heckel of routing his e-mails through third-party Internet domains, which is also outlawed.

"It’s not very amenable to local and state laws and regulation," said Dale Crandall, Heckel’s lawyer. "Ultimately, the United States Supreme Court will need to decide the issues that we’re talking about."

Crandall said Heckel has not decided whether to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court now or wait for the outcome of the trial.

On the Net:

Washington Supreme Court: www.courts.wa.gov