New Zealand spam regulation

New Zealand has not yet enacted legislation to regulate spam.

It is likely to eventually emulate Australia's Spam Act 2003, despite government comments that there are

serious problems in framing workable laws to stop the nuisance. There is, for example, the question of how to define what constitutes unsolicited commercial email.

The New Zealand government is active with international groups such as the ITU and the OECD as well as looking at what is happening with other countries. However, the degree to which the government can be effective in fighting spam is limited and industry self-regulation is an essential element in any anti-spam strategy.

Reluctance to take action is consistent with a similarly hands-off stance on domain name system regulation (discussed in more detail here), in contrast to the Australian legislation that underpins the operation of auDA, the Australian DNS regulator.

We will be reporting on developments in New Zealand as they occur.


























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