Email Marketing News and Tips

As an email marketing professional, you know the value in your email campaign’s content.  But, as a result of the CAN-SPAM Act for 2003 and CAN-SPAM Act updates in 2008, you will also need to make sure your campaigns are also compliant with these rules.

Here is an overview regarding these federal statutes.  You can read more blog articles related to CAN-SPAM here on this blog site: 

• CAN-SPAM compliance (deceptive headers)
• CAN-SPAM compliance (May 2008 revision)
• CAN-SPAM 2008 changes: New opt-out requirements

 
What is CAN-SPAM?

CAN-SPAM is an act that was passed by Congress in 2003 (and is available for review on the FTC.gov and FCC.gov web sites.  These laws effectively define email and stipulate how your campaigns must be designed.  The primary motivation for these laws is to prevent phishing and other deceptive email delivery practices within email campaigns.  The CAN-SPAM act does not prevent you from sending spam.  It prevents you from deceiving the recipient with what you send.  Yes, there are sections that speak of things like harvesting of email addresses that we’ll talk more about shortly.

What CAN-SPAM does

CAN SPAM defines commercial email as “any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service (including content on an Internet website operated for a commercial purpose)”.  It exempts “transactional or relationship” emails from this definition.  Transactional emails consist of such things as receipts, invoices, account information (login/password info), etc.  Transactional emails are defined to not primarily contain language persuading someone to purchase something.

What CAN-SPAM 2003 requires

CAN-SPAM 2003 requires the following:

• A conspicuous opt-out and/or unsubscribe link (must operate for at least 30-60 days following the campaign) or, alternatively, Reply-To opt-out mechanisms may be used
• Unsubscribes / opt-out requests must be honored within 10 days
• Opt-out / Suppression lists are only used for removals (never for emailing)
• A physical postal address as defined by the USPS postal service
• Subject lines that relate to the body content (and that are not deceptive)
• A SEXUALLY EXPLICIT label in the subject if the content is unsuitable for minors.
• Open relays must not be used to deliver emails
• Harvested addresses may not be used to send emails
  • Harvested addresses are defined as obtaining adddresses through sites that prohibit gathering of email addresses
  • Use of harvested addresses will raise the penalty of any other violations of the CAN-SPAM act
• Automated creation of email addresses through guessing techniques or by using dictionaries to create email addresses is also not permitted.
  • Creation of email addresses and then use of these addresses will also increase penalties for violations of the CAN-SPAM Act
• Religious, Political and National Security messages may be exempt from this Act.

What CAN-SPAM 2008 requires

In 2008, an update to the 2003 provisions passed.  The CAN-SPAM Update in 2008 added some additional rules to be aware:

• The definition of a person has been clarified.
• The definition of a sender has been clarified.
• The definition of a valid physical postal address has been clarified and expanded.
• Opt-Out requests must not cost money and require only one action by the recipient (i.e., click a link, send an opt-out email) and must not request additional information.  Additionally…
  • opt-out requests may not be behind login/password systems
  • opt-out requests may not use persuasive language to keep the recipient
  • opt-out pages may only ask for an email address
  • opt-out links must land directly on an opt-out form

Enforcement

A individual person or company cannot directly sue another company based on the CAN-SPAM provisions. Under CAN-SPAM, only the FTC can enforce these laws. Thus, for violations, a complaint must be registered with the FTC who then may choose to investigate such violations and, if necessary, enforce the law.