Italy was the the first to implement anti-spam laws under the EC Directive on Privacy and Electric Communications, 2002/58/EC. It started strong, but its efforts seem to have fizzled.
September 3, 2003, almost two months before the EC deadline (see previous LawMeme coverage of the Directive here), Italy issued a legal notice under the heading, "Spamming for Profit is Now a Crime." Italy used the leverage allowed to member states in the directive to impose harsh punishments on spammers using spam for profit. The law has fines up 90,000 Euro and jail time up to three years. These provisions sent shockwaves through Europe since it was clear that punishments would vary widely from the same EC directive. The BBC headline, "Italian Spammers Face Jail," showed the difference perceived in Italy's hard-line stance splitting European spam policy.
These predictions turned out to be not so true. The Italian agency in charge of these laws, the Garante Per La Protezione Dei Dati Personali seems to have done little except scary press releases. EuroCAUCE's list of older laws shows that Italy long protected data and imposed fines for untraceable advertising. The Garante never went that extra step to round up European spammers for criminal charges. If Italy does start strictly enforcing these laws, it could split Europe. However, the effect would certainly not be as dramatic as predicted in 2003, since after that other nations implemented their own criminal provisions under 2002/58/EC or with similar but existing legislation and CAN-SPAM added criminal punishments in 2004.
For other countries, see the Spam Laws Worldwide Index.