Despite voting to support the ‘opt-in’ approach, the Parliament voted to reject the legislation as a whole. The proposals will now be sent back to the European Parliaments Committee for Citizens’ Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs for a re-drafting.
Back in July, this Committee, voted to give individual Member States the freedom to choose between “opt-in” and “opt-out” schemes for dealing with unsolicited mail. This was a decision which was seen to leave open the possibility for spam to be sent to some EU citizens without prior permission, provided that they were given the opportunity to ask to be removed from mailing lists.