A move by service providers AOL and Yahoo to charge companies for delivering promotional emails has been attacked by some UK online vendors.

The charge will allow messages to bypass the service providers' spam filters after being authenticated by a company called Goodmail.

Ling Valentine, owner of Lingscars.com, an Internet-based car leasing firm, said: 'This will not protect UK businesses and individuals from yet more spam; it just means that Yahoo and AOL make money from allowing this rubbish through.'

Jason Zemmel, owner of online health and beauty retailer, halfpriceperfumes.co.uk, said the system could anger both vendors and users.

'Responsible web retailers who send legitimate messages only to people who have asked to receive them are likely to suffer… especially if order confirmation and tracking emails are also affected.'

AOL and Yahoo plans to charge up to one US cent per message, but stress that users will not pay anything.