On Friday, Florida's 2nd District Court of Appeal, located in Lakeland, Fla., ruled that consumers can sue those who send them "junk" faxes.
The decision was based on a suit filed in 2001 by Timothy Condon, a Tampa lawyer, against Office Depot of Delray Beach, Fla.
Condon contended that the faxes cost him quite a bit in paper and toner, saying that the faxes were worse than spam e-mail. Click here to read the entire article in this morning's St. Petersburg Times.
With this ruling in place, companies are likely to replace junk faxes with e-mail spam here in Florida, or permission-based e-mail marketing, which allows companies to send marketing material to consumers with their permission.
Article comments
1 - TDavid
I like the spirit of this law, however didn't this lawyer know that he could plug his fax line into his computer and save quite a bit of $$$ in those expenses?
Instead of making this a law -- because there are too damn many laws out there IMO, they should have just fined Office Depot heavily and made them pay for an instructional computer (fax) class for Mr. Condon plus his lost time at work.
2 - Mac Diva
But that would require people think, T.
3 - Mike B
TDavid, sure one can use their computer, but how many people have the knowledge and willingness to do that? The average consumer is going to purchase a machine, ink, paper, and rent a line for their faxes. It is simple and has about as large of a learning curve as a copier. The point isn't to protect Mr. Condon's solely, but the consumer. Hundreds of thousands of faxes are sent every year that are unwanted, and the consumer gets a 'postage due' notice every time that they cannot deny. The junk faxers are stealing from you five cents at a time. The law allows people to protect their rights and resources, and that is what the appeals court just reinstated.
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