A person who received spam mail demanded compensation from the company's marketing director after contending that by virtue of her position she was directly responsible for breaking the law.
The Court dismissed the claim against the marketing director and held that there is no room to charge her personally. With regard to the publication of spam messages, Israeli law stipulates that a director of a corporation as well as the person responsible for the areas of marketing or advertising in the corporation must monitor and do everything possible to prevent an offense by the corporation or an employee thereof. However, the law addresses only the criminal aspect and does not directly address the liability in the civil aspect. Imposing a personal liability against an officer of a corporation will not be done easily and it must be shown that the officer itself committed the wrongdoing and caused the damage. Here, the marketing manager was a regular employee whose name did not appear in the advertisement at all and in any case, the advertisement promoted a business which she does not own and the company's goals and not her own and therefore she cannot be seen as the one who 'advertised' the spam. In addition, the responsibility at the civil level should not be extended to a marketing manager and personal responsibility for the payment of compensation should not be imposed on her, certainly where there is no personal involvement on her part in the publication of the spam.