Catholic church officials could face legal action in Austria for spam after sending out 17,000 text messages to the faithful in a diocese in the southern city of Graz reminding them to pay their church tax.Under Austrian law all registered Catholics have to automatically pay a church tax along with their regular taxes.
But many of the faithful have been falling behind with payments – and church officials said they thought the text message would be more effective than a threatening final demand.
But under Austrian law it is forbidden to send out more than 50 text messages without the permission of the receiver confirming that they want to receive the news.
Diocese spokeswoman Herta Ferk said that they had been advised that it was perfectly legal to send out the text messages – but now they have been told they could be fined up to 37,000 Euros for the messaging reminder service.
Ferk said: "I wasn't advertising what we were doing and we felt it was a much nicer way to remind people to pay their tax. And it worked. We had more than 1,000 people settle their debt once they received the message."
But under Austrian law it is forbidden to send out more than 50 text messages without the permission of the receiver confirming that they want to receive the news.
Diocese spokeswoman Herta Ferk said that they had been advised that it was perfectly legal to send out the text messages – but now they have been told they could be fined up to 37,000 Euros for the messaging reminder service.
Ferk said: "I wasn't advertising what we were doing and we felt it was a much nicer way to remind people to pay their tax. And it worked. We had more than 1,000 people settle their debt once they received the message."