A lawsuit against a telecommunications company for sending unsolicited commercial text messages recently ended in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, with a ruling that the company compensate the plaintiff 5,000 yuan (US$625). This was the first such case to be heard in China.  

Wang Jun, a Nanjing native, accused the Jiangsu branch of China Unicom, one of the country's three biggest telecommunication firms, of disturbing his life by relentlessly barraging him with text messages since March.

Wang demanded a public apology from Jiangsu Unicom in local newspapers and compensation of 40,000 yuan (US$5,000) for mental anguish. Wang stored in his mobile phone as proof 39 messages sent within 37 days between May 19 and June 26.

The messages Wang received said he had a chance to win a prize from Jiangsu Unicom. He could have replied "U" to join the game, or "0000" to decline, but either reply would have cost 0.1 yuan. Wang didn't respond with "0000" to stop the message for fear of being set up for another of the automatic-fee traps frequently reported by the media.

Wang called Jiangsu Unicom's customer service hotline and visited its office to ask for a cessation of the messages instead but was told that they could only be stopped by replying to them using the  "0000" number.

Wang, a long time sufferer of neurasthenia and depression, said he was tormented greatly by the messages. "The messages even arrived as late as 10 at night," said Wang. "I was forced to look at them again and again since my mobile cannot delete a message without opening it first."

According to Zhu Dan, a staff member at the company's Value-Added Service Department, the messages bombarding Wang were part of an incentive program targeting the millions of clients who send more than ten messages per month.

Users had a chance to win a two yuan (US$0.25) mobile fee if they agreed to participate in the program, he added. The company's system would stop sending subscribers the messages after a certain period if they ignored them, Zhu said, without specifying how long that period was.

After tough negotiations the case ended on Tuesday with Jiangsu Unicom and Wang agreeing on 5,000 yuan in compensation.

The judge who ruled on the case, surnamed Liu, said the case was made tough by the country's lack of a law specifically describing how commercial text messages might infringe on the rights of users.

According to Tian Kan, a law expert with Nanjing Traditional Medicine University, it's sometimes hard to regulate the big players in China's telecommunications industry. "New controlling regulations should protect customers," Tian said.

(China Daily August 10, 2006)