A quick Wiki on the world’s laws governing email suggests that four of the largest, fastest growing national economies and much buzzed about ‘BRIC‘ countries have one thing in common: a lacuna of legislation or enforcement to regulate commercial email. Brazil has a short section in its Empresa Brasileira de Telecomunicações (Portuguese) on email published in 1999, but it is quite vague and lacks enforcement capabilities. Russia loosely addresses advertising email in Russian Civil Code 309. China has passed the most clear legislation on email with its 2006 “Regulations on Internet Email Services“, which holdsESPs responsible and requires opt-in, as well as the placement of “AD” at the beginning of subject lines. However, India has recently passed an amendment to its IT Act of 2000, without addressing commercial email. Below is an overview of IT regulation so far in India. 

Overview: The closest legislation relating to email in India is the newly amended Information Technology Act of 2000. It was previously ammended in 2006, and Indian lawmakers amended the IT Act again in December of 2008. However, the 2008 amendments have yet to be published in the Gazette of India and still do not address email. The law addresses the following, summarized by Justice Rajesh Tandon of the Indian Cyber-Regulations Appellate Tribunal:

-Tampering computer source documents

-Hacking with Computer system

-Loss/damage to computer resource/utility

-Hacking

-Obscene publication/transmission in electronic form.

-Failure of compliance/orders of Certifying Authority.

-Failure to assist in decrypting the information intercepted by Govt. Agency.

-Un-authorized access/attempt to access to protected computer system.

-Obtaining license or Digital Signature Certificate by misrepresentation/suppression of fact.

-Publishing false Digital Signature Certificate.

-Fraud Digital Signature Certificate.

-Breach of confidentiality/privacy.

Enforcement Effects: Interestingly enough, India’s 2008 amendment to its IT Act has reduced the punishment for “cyber crime” from 5 years to 2-3 years and has made violations of the act bailable offenses. However, the amendment has apparently closed a lot of loopholes in the existing law. As India’s economy develops, a stronger IT infrastructure and a greater presence in the online marketplace will come to fruition. Without enforceable email laws specific to India, the online reputations of companies with a global reach could potentially suffer.

Industry Self-Regulation: CAUCE India was founded in 1999 and later merged with CAUCE Australia to form APCAUCE (Asia-Pacific), a volunteer organization lobbying against unsolicted comercial email. APCAUCE is a division of iCAUCE. In a growing economy, Indian companies with a global reach are in the right position to develop functioning rulesets that are fair to both marketers and consumers. Many email marketing laws around the globe find their roots in industry-developed best practices.

Relevant Resources:

Department of Information Technology (IT Act 2000)

iCAUCE - International Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email

Cyberlaw India- Information on the IT Act, amendments, opinions, articles and resources from Mr. Pavan Duggal, a prominent India IT legislation advocate. 

IT Act 2008 (Actual Legislation in English)