A new law passed in the state of California bans unwanted and unsolicited commercial text messages to owners of mobile phones, pagers and personal digital assistants (PDAs). The law is intended to “curtail unsolicited advertising before the practice becomes pervasive.”

The law does not provide for any direct fines or other penalties for those that send text message spam. Consumers will have to sue text message spammers to recoup any charges that their carriers may levy for the receipt of text messages, although such lawsuits are only likely as part of a class action.

California governor Gray Davis said in a statement: “Wireless communication is an emerging technology. We are acting now to prevent spam text messaging from spinning out of control like spam e-mail has.”

We are processing your request. \n Thank you for your patience. An error occurred. This could be due to inactivity on the page - please try again.