WASHINGTON, July 14, 1998 -- The Ad-Hoc Working Group on Unsolicited Commercial Email delivered its report on Unsolicited Commercial Email to the Federal Trade Commission this morning. The recommendations offered reflect the Working Group's efforts to reach consensus on appropriate first steps to address the problems associated with unsolicited commercial email (UCE).

According to Deirdre Mulligan, staff counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology and the coordinator of the Working Group, "the report reflects a tremendous effort by organizations and companies to forge consensus where many thought none possible."

The recommendations reflect a consensus on important baseline policies including the need for greater end-user control over UCE, the need for public policies to prohibit the use of fraudulent headers by senders of UCE, the need for technology and policy solutions that work together to address UCE on the global network. "While participants have varied opinions as to whether these goals will best be met through existing legislative proposals, new technical standards, self-regulation or some combination, we were able to reach wide agreement on what should be achieved," Mulligan said.

The Report is the culmination of a ten month process begun at the behest of the Federal Trade Commission to identify possible solutions to a vexing problem unlikely to be solved by market forces alone. At the conclusion of a half-day workshop, documenting the frustrations of email users - both individuals and businesses - with the growing clutter of unsolicited messages in their in-boxes, Working Group participants agreed to provide the FTC with initial actions to address the problems associated with UCE.

The report provides a factual basis for efforts to address UCE by providing analyses of existing law and technology and reviewing various legislative, technical and self-regulatory proposals to address UCE. The report concludes with the following six recommendations:

Technical tools and public policies that allow individuals to indicate their desire to receive or not receive UCE and exercise greater control over incoming email messages should be pursued.

Technical measures and public policies should be pursued that prevent and/or prohibit the use of fraudulent headers to send unsolicited commercial email messages.

Further efforts to examine the cost structure of the email system with respect to UCE should continue to be explored by the private sector.

Self-regulatory efforts to create opt-out or opt-in programs should proceed.

Increased efforts to eliminate email fraud be undertaken, and the use of inaccurate and misleading header information be considered an attempt to defraud consumers.

Relevant standard setting bodies to continue to search for technical standards and specifications that will: assist users in controlling incoming email; more fairly allocate the costs of UCE; and ease the burden UCE places on the network.