European Union companies may have to get permission from mobile users before sending commercial messages via SMS, following the progress of legislative plans in Brussels last week.

At the moment, there are no restrictions on the use of SMS as a promotional tool, but that may change if plans by European legislators come to fruition.

The European parliamentary Citizens' Rights and Freedoms, Justice and Home Affairs
Committee's ruling of last week will become law if it is approved by the European parliament in May, and then ratified by member states.

This is good news for users, but has angered mobile phone companies.

Mobile phone companies are currently the heaviest users of commercial SMS, and believe they being singled out by the legislation, according to SMS services company Mobileway. ®

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External Links

Plan, Don't Spam, Forrester Warns Europe's SMS Marketers (http://www.forrester.com/ER/Press/Release/0,1769,680,00.html)