Issuing unsolicited e-mails is increasingly likely to land the sender in court. A Scottish business was recently ordered to pay £750 in damages and £616 in costs for sending a single spam e-mail to a recipient, and in 2005 a car company had to pay out £300 to a man who received unsolicited e-mails from it.

Small businesses are being urged to take notice of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, which apply to text, picture and video messaging as well as e-mails.

Tips on how businesses can ensure they are not falling foul of the law can be seen in this article from Morgan Cole Solicitors, reported in the Western Mail.