She said the amendment will avoid undue impact on small businesses, such as solo plumbers wanting simply to advertise their existence. However, the committee said that to leave the two categories as proposed would lead to definitional squabbles.

'The distinction could be abused by people wishing to stretch the boundary between commercial and promotional messages, in order to circumvent the opt-in requirement for commercial messages.'

In the original draft, promotional messages were subject to an 'opt-out' provision, allowing recipients to notify senders that they wanted no more communications.

So, how does removing the promotional category prevent abuse? 'Well if there is no promotional category, [spammers] can't say their messages are promotional,' said Rich.

However, the committee's report said, 'We consider the bill should catch all messages that seek to market or promote good and services, and that our amendment provides clarity on the matter.'