The DMA Supports FTC on Anti-Spam Sweep
Endorses Government Action to Enforce E-mail Marketing Regulations
NEW YORK, November 15, 2002 - The Direct Marketing Association (The DMA) today applauded the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the state attorneys generals for their success in the "Spam Harvest" program, which helped to identify online marketers who engaged in fraudulent practices against consumers.
"This proactive investigation is a significant step toward greater enforcement of the existing rules that will help protect e-mail as a viable marketing and business tool," said H. Robert Wientzen, president & CEO, The DMA. "We hope that this signals a new aggressive enforcement campaign against fraudulent e-mailers."
Today’s actions help to control the growth of spam, which hurts consumers and legitimate marketers alike. Earlier this year, The DMA promulgated groundbreaking online marketing guidelines to assist consumers in identifying legitimate commercial e-mail from spam and promote higher ethical standards among marketers.
In October, The DMA announced that it would pursue legislation as the latest tactic in the battle against the rising volume of spam inundating consumers’ e-mailboxes.
The DMA is the leading trade association for businesses interested in interactive and database marketing, with nearly 4,700 member companies from the United States and 53 other nations. Founded in 1917, its members include direct marketers from every business segment as well as the nonprofit and electronic marketing sectors. Included are catalogers, Internet retailers and service providers, financial services providers, book and magazine publishers, book and music clubs, retail stores, industrial manufacturers and a host of other vertical segments, including the service industries that support them. According to a DMA-commissioned study, direct and interactive marketing sales in the United States exceeded $1.86 trillion in 2001, including $118 billion in catalog sales and $30 billion in sales generated by the Internet. The DMA's Web site is
www.the-dma.org, and its consumer Web site is www.shopthenet.org.
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