The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing(CAN-SPAM) ActIf you use email in your business, you should know the requirements of the CAN-SPAM Act. The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act was first passed in 2003 with additional addendums published in 2008. The act applies to anyone sending commercial email messages in the United States. Basically, it includes any email with a primary purpose of being a commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service, including B2B email.Here’s what you need to know.
There are seven key requirements to be aware of in order to comply with the CAN-SPAM Act:
- Don’t use a false or misleading header information (i.e., from, to, reply to, and routing information).
- Don’t use deceptive subject lines. In other words, don’t bait recipients with an offer in the subject line that isn’t the real offer in the body of the email.
- Make it clear that your email is an advertisement. The law provides a bit of leeway for this, but suffice to say, you must clearly disclose that the email is an advertisement.
- Include your address in the email. The original 2003 version of the act required that you include your physical address, but the 2008 version modified the requirements to allow a P.O. box, as long as it’s registered with the U.S. Postal Service. If you’re not using a U.S. Postal Service P.O. box directly, however, there are a few additional details you need to know about.
- You must give your recipients a way to opt out – or unsubscribe – from future emails. This is a very important requirement. The unsubscribe link must be clear enough for an ordinary person to read, recognize, and understand. You can provide options for unsubscribing, but you must always include a choice to stop all commercial messages. If you take readers to your website, make sure they don’t have to log in or navigate through pages to get to the unsubscribe form. Nothing but an email address may be requested on an unsubscribe form, and there should be no persuasive language to keep users opted in.
- Honor unsubscribe (opt-out) requests promptly. Although you have 10 days to honor an unsubscribe request, most email service providers have mechanisms to facilitate unsubscribe requests immediately. You are also required by law to be able to process opt-out requests for 30 days after you send a message. That means that if you are changing email service providers, you must retain the old system for 30 days after your last message was sent from the system to continue to be able to process the unsubscribe requests.
- Be aware and monitor what your consultants, business partners, or others may be doing on your behalf. CAN-SPAM makes it clear that even if you hire another firm to send your emails for you, both the company doing the sending – as well as the company whose product is being promoted in the email – are legally responsible.
Not abiding by these rules can lead to serious penalties. This emphasizes the importance of understanding the law before setting out onyour email campaign.
For the full explanation of the CAN-SPAM Act from the FTC, please visit:
www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business