New anti-spamming legislation came into force in Ireland on 24th February 2003 by the European Communities (Directive 2000/31/EC) Regulations 2003 with penalties of up to €3,000 and/or up to 3 months imprisonment on conviction. The new regulations require people sending unsolicited commercial emails from Ireland to ensure that such emails include the letters "ADV" (advertisement) or "UCE" (unsolicited commercial email) in the subject line of any email.

The Regulations also lay down formalities relating to the conclusion of a valid and binding contract, as follows:

• The service provider must set out the steps to be followed in concluding the contract
• Receipt of an order placed electronically must be acknowledged by the service provider electronically and without delay

The order and its acknowledgment will be deemed to have been received once the parties to whom it is addressed can access them.

An exemption from liability is provided for ISP's where they are:

• acting as a mere conduit for information
• caching information for its efficient onward transmission
• hosting information.