European legislators have turned their sights on spam or unwanted e-mail - a bane of the Internet age.
The issue of unwanted commercial e-mail was raised during the EU's first public meeting to discuss privacy on the Internet.
The commissioners discussed proposals to extend strict privacy protections adopted in against unsolicited phone calls from marketers to e-mail and advertisements sent to mobile phones.
EU information society Commissioner Mr Erkki Liikanen said companies should not be allowed to send mass-mailings to an e-mail account unless that person had agreed in advance to receive them.
That would relieve consumers of the burden of having to notify often elusive senders to stop the spam.
Mr Liikanen, who said his own e-mail inbox is often stuffed with spam, experimented over the Christmas holiday with trying to get off the mailing lists of six companies only to find "it's not that simple".
"You have to find the form, someone to write to," he said. "I think the arguments in favour of the opt-in system are stronger." PA