This December, the US House of Representatives approved Senate Bill 1608 also called the "Undertaking Spam, Spyware, And Fraud Enforcement with Enforcers beyond Borders Act" or US SAFE WEB Act.  The bill provides the Federal government with additional tools for the enforcement arsenal for spammers acting from outside the U.S.

The bill amends the FTC ACT's key definition of unfair or deceptive acts or practices to apply to foreign commerce.  The US SAFE WEB act also permits the FTC to provide information to foreign governments to enhance cooperative enforcement efforts.  To meet the new definition of unfair or deceptive acts, an act must be likely to cause reasonably foreseeable injury within the U.S. or involve conduct occurring within the U.S.   Although the act is clearly geared towards anti-spam enforcement, the new definition may effect other areas of foreign commerce with domestic counterparts regulated under the FTC Act.