SHANGHAI, Aug. 21 -- Guangdong Communication Administration has become the first information authority to punish a company 5,000 yuan (US$627.51) for sending junk e-mails, People's Daily reported today.

A Shenzhen company, which runs a Website (www.companystudy.com), began sending junk e-mails, containing commercial advertisements, from January of this year by collecting e-mail addresses from the Internet.

The administration carried out an investigation after receiving complaints from Internet users and ordered the company to stop sending the e-mail ads.

The regulation on e-mail servers, issued by the Ministry of Information Industry in March, said e-mail that contains commercial ads must be noted with "AD" on the title and it must allow users an opt out, or the e-mail sender will be punished up to 30,000 yuan.

The ministry launched a crackdown on spam e-mail from March by issuing a regulation and setting up a center to receive complaints.

A survey conducted by the China Internet Association shows that during the period of August 2004 to April 2005, Chinese netizens received an average of 16.8 junk e-mails each week, accounting for over 60 percent of their total received.