Here's How YOU Can Stick to the Law and Still Profit

The CAN-SPAM Act and Its Impact on Email Marketing

Disclaimer: I am not an attorney. This is not intended to be a substitute for appropriate legal counsel. Please consult an attorney about how the CAN-SPAM act affects your particular business.

Here is a summary of the provisions of the CAN-SPAM act:

  • The CAN-SPAM act supercedes the nearly 40 state laws that currently exist as well as the recently-passed but yet to be enacted California law.
  • Commercial email must be labeled as such, though no uniform standard is established in the law.
  • Commercial email must include a working opt-out link.
  • Commercial email must include the postal address of the sender.
  • Commercial emails must have an accurate subject line.
  • Commercial emails must have accurate header information.
  • The FTC, any state attorney general or internet service provider is authorized to bring action under Act. Individuals and classes of individuals (as in “class action suit”) cannot bring action against suspected spammers.
  • The FTC was authorized to evaluate the benefit of a “do not email” registry similar to the “do not call” registry. Note: The FTC was not required to set up a registry, just to study the possible costs and benefits.
  • Once an email recipient opts-out, you are no longer permitted to send them any additional commercial email.
  • Any unsubscribe request must be honored within ten business days. Keep in mind that an unsubscribe request must be honored for all the company’s lists, not simply the one which caused the unsubscribe request.
  • Ads must meet FTC disclosure guidelines for Internet advertisements, outlined here: http://ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/dotcom/#III


Things that are not prohibited by the CAN-SPAM act:

Surprisingly, there are a number of things left unaddressed by the act:

  • It is still legal to send unsolicited email as long as such email meets the requirements above. The law does not require prior consent to send email to an individual.
  • The law defines commercial email as email whose primary purpose is to sell products. Email newsletters are NOT considered commercial email—even if they contain ads.
  • It does not clearly prohibit the use of pre-checked boxes for subscribing.
  • It does not clearly address the use of viral forwarding campaigns. They may be technical violations of the law.


How you can respond:

If you are going to engage in email marketing after January 1, 2004, here are the things I would recommend to keep you in step with the law:

  • Though it is not required by the law, strongly consider moving your list to verified (double) opt-in. Having a clear record of when and why a person subscribes just makes sense.
  • Maintain an active black-list and discuss with your list-serving company how they are planning to address the almost inevitable initiation of a “do not spam” registry.
  • Honor unsubscribe requests as quickly as possible, and add the unsubscribes to your growing black-list.
  • Do not use false header, misleading subject or inaccurate “from” information.
  • Make sure every email has two ways to unsubscribe (in case one is not functional.)
  • Place your postal mail address on every email.
  • Label commercial email as such.


Basically just be a good boy or girl and treat your subscribers with respect—even if they don’t treat you that way!



If you have any questions or problems, let us know!

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All-In-One-Business.com
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Williamsburg, KY 40769
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