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The EU has been adding increasingly strict anti-Spam laws. And good for them ! However, since the internet is global and so are your visitors, this affects everyone. Most law-abiding businesses don’t consider an invitation from a friend to be Spam. The way we see it is that if a freind has your email addess, and thinks you are interested in something, it isn't any different then an email sent from their own server to tell you about it! (It's just more convenient, especially if the referrer is away from his/her own PC.) But, it could be viewed as unsolicited email, especially if misused.
We admire the EU's strong stance on real Spam...we all hate Spam! However, your business is your livelihood, and you are still smart to watch for fall-out.
So, what if you are based in the United States, Canada, Australia, India, China, Africa...? You want visitors to refer their friends to your site. You aren't bound by EU laws, but would like to show respect for EU citizens and their laws, which absolutely forbid any sort of unsolicited emails. (In some cases, including a single email from a friend?!) What can you do?
For cases like this, Expinion Tell a Friend, is perfect. From the login area, an administrator can restrict certain domain extensions from receiving a site referral from their friends. (As a bonus, the extensions table comes already data filled with many European domain extensions, which you can leave enabled.) You can also make your email message read in such a way that you discourage your visitors from sending to their friends who live in an EU country. (All this can be done from the administration, any time from anywhere online, because the administration is browser based.) And, since only one email is sent at-a-time, from one friend-to-another, everything should be fine.
If you are based in Europe, we don’t recommend that you use any Site Referral application for the time being. With the larger local traffic that you will attract, it just isn’t worth the risk of legal troubles.
We can't guarantee that all EU country emails will always be excluded, since an EU resident may have an email address that is not EU specific (such as .com, .net, etc.) Or, the administration may remove a domain extension. Also, there may be more countries currently in the EU then appear in the table pre-filled by Expinion. (It's the responsibility of the purchaser to maintain their list.)
However, proper use of Tell a Friend will go a long way to limiting such inappropriate emailings, and show that you care about your visitors and the laws of their land.
[Good EU Anti-Spam Countries Link]
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Let me thank you so much for creating the MMS. It's truly amazing. I have been able to do exactly what i intended on doing with it, managing members and redirecting them to pages I set up for them.
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