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Legal Eagle

Miscellaneous

Q: Unsolicited mail nuisance

Our production company, based in central London, is inundated with junk mail daily. Sorting this from our business post wastes huge amounts of time, and our notice requesting no unsolicited mail of this type is simply ignored. Do I have any comeback?

A: Join the club. Unsolicited junk mail is one of the curses of modern society, and has been the subject of much debate at government level.

From April 2001 the Government is to introduce two electoral registers, namely a full register of everyone entitled to vote, and a separate commercial register available for sale to companies and charities for fundraising purposes. Registered voters will be able to opt out of the commercial register in order to avoid junk mail, subject to certain exemptions, such as for political parties. When that happens you can hopefully take advantage of it to prevent junk mail addressed to you personally or to any named colleagues, but it apparently will not help in relation to junk mail sent to businesses at business addresses. The further step of denying access to the electoral roll by unauthorised persons has not been implemented because of its unwanted effect on legitimate enquiries.

Although you have not asked about electronic junk mail, you might like to know that it is unlawful to send unsolicited sales and marketing faxes to individuals - who for this purpose include consumers, traders and (except in Scotland) partnerships) without prior consent, but Government plans to regulate unsolicited commercial e-mail - known as 'spam' - have been abandoned for the time being, relying instead on voluntary self-regulation which, according to the Department of Trade and Industry, is the most effective approach. Nonetheless the sale of e-mail addresses is illegal under the Data Protection Act without express permission.

One of the problems with unsolicited junk mail is that the recipient cannot know without diligent investigation whether the sender obtained his name and address lawfully (from an electoral roll, Yellow Pages or some other directory) or unlawfully from the sale of information in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998.

Furthermore, in some instances, you may without realising it have authorised the sender to send you the unsolicited junk mail. For example, if you applied for an insurance policy or opened a building society account or bought an investment of some kind, the small print in your application form may have authorised the organisation concerned to send you its marketing literature, unless you stipulated otherwise or deleted the authorisation paragraph.

There are things you can do which may possibly be effective. You can start keeping your junk mail and writing to each sender demanding that they take you off of their mailing list in future. Then if this is ignored, keep the second copy and send it with the first together with a copy of your cease and desist letter, to the Data Protection Registrar, who is said to be launching a crusade against unsolicited junk mail, which was top of the list of nuisances nominated by 65 per cent of those questioned in a recent NOPE survey. A com-plaint to the registrar, supported by documentation of the kind concerned, should at least result in an investigation.

The recent introduction of human rights into English law includes the right to respect for private life, which may possibly be invoked to restrict unwanted junk mail which you have expressly prohibited as an invasion of privacy, although it will not assist in relation to corporate mail.

Interestingly, there was a case in 1996 in which the West London County Court ruled that delivering a free newspaper to someone who does not want it constitutes a trespass, and this ruling was said to apply also to all types of junk mail. Consequently, a threat to sue the sender based on that ruling may have the desired effect, although it is hardly practicable for you to issue a multitude of proceedings against every organisation from which you receive unsolicited junk mail.

Another thing you can do is write to the Direct Marketing Association, whose members are responsible for targeted mail shots, demanding that you be taken off their members' lists. This should help in reducing the volume of junk mail, although it is unlikely to eradicate it entirely, and even then you may have to renew your request periodically, in order to achieve maximum effect.

Through the Telephone Preference Service Web site it is also possible to stop unsolicited direct marketing phone calls to individuals, sole traders and partnerships.

I have to say that you may find it less trouble simply to consign your unwanted mail to the bin, than to spend time on trying to stem the tide, but that is, of course, up to you.

First published February 2001