ISP PaeTec Communications alleges that its corporate customer MonsterHut is sending spam – which is in breach of its terms and conditions. MonsterHut maintains that it does not send spam, only targeted, opt-in e-mail, and that for the ISP to prevent its e-mail distribution is a breach of the contract between MonsterHut and PaeTec.
PaeTec claims to have complaints from over 750 customers and affidavits from dozens of these individuals saying they received MonsterHuts e-mails but did not ask for them – i.e. the e-mails were unsolicited. The consumers are labelling the company a spammer.
The argument of MonsterHut is that it buys from several companies lists of names and e-mail addresses of people who have agreed to receive information of interest from third parties. This raises the problem that, as yet, there is no applicable definition of spam.
The date of the full hearing on the issues in the case is not yet known.