Mass marketing emails, we all know them, we ALL hate them.
If you are tired of receiving unwanted marketing emails from companies that you don't care for or never signed up for, and you are from South Africa, you might have grounds for prosecution (or at least you'd be able to scare the sender into taking your name out of their database):
Unsolicited goods, services or communications
The Electronic Communications and Transactions act of South Africa 2002 states the following under Unsolicited goods, services or communications:
45 .(1) Any person who sends unsolicited commercial communications to consumers, must provide the consumer --
(a) with the option to cancel his or her subscription to the mailing list of that person, and
(b) with the identifying particulars of the source from which that person obtained the consumer's personal information, on request of the consumer.
(2) No agreement is concluded where a consumer has failed to respond to an unsolicited communication.
(3) Any person who fails to comply with or contravenes subsection (1) is guilty of an offence and liable, on conviction, to the penalties prescribed in section 89(1)
(4) Any person who sends unsolicited commercial communications to a person who has advised the sender that such communications are unwelcome, is guilty of an offence and liable, on conviction, to the penalties prescribed in section 89(1)
This means that, should you or your company make use of any kind of marketing emails, the consumer has to "Opt In" or "Subscribe" and consent to receiving such emails and, should they ask, you will legally have to supply them with the sign up form that they used to subscribe to your mailing list.
There should furthermore, regardless of the circumstances always be an "Unsubscribe" or "Opt Out" option on any marketing email sent out by yourself or your company.
The aforementioned Section 89(1) states:
89(1) A person convicted of an offence referred to in sections 37(3), 40(2), 58(2), 80(5). 82(2) or 86(1), (2) or (3) is liable to a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 12 months.
Source: Government Gazette (No. 25 of 2002: Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002.)