The FTC recently updated the CAN-SPAM Act (stands for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003) to clarify certain requirements that affect commercial emailers.  If you send commercial email, and especially if you have affiliates that potentially send commercial email, you will want to stay up to date on the requirements of CAN-SPAM.   The FTC clarified 4 basic topics: 

The first involves the "unsubscribe process" that has always been a part of the CAN-SPAM requirements (you must provide a valid and functioning unsubscribe method).  The new FTC rule now clearly states that you cannot charge a fee for the right to opt out (seems obvious), you can’t require someone to provide personally identifiable information as part of the unsubscribe process,  or to have to take multiple steps beyond sending a simple unsubscribe reply email or visiting one web page. 

The second issue involves the common situation where a commercial email is really coming "from" more than one party.  The clarification allows the designation of a single party as the "sender" for purposes of CAN-SPAM.  The single party must meet certain requirements, however (must meet the definition of sender under the Act, for example) and it is important to note that if the designated sender does not comply with the other requirements of the Act, the other parties involved in the email can still be held responsible for those violations. 

The third issue simply clarifies that the requirement of a valid physical address in the body of the commercial email may include an accurately registered P.O. Box or private mail box (doesn’t necessarily have to be a street address).  Obviously, the address must still be valid.

The fourth issue simply clarified that when the Act mentions "person" it also means corporations, LLC’s, and other valid legal entities (no hiding behind your corporate veil).

These updates and clarifications are very useful to legitimate emailers because it removes some of the doubt that existed previously.  Be sure to review your email practices from time to time to be sure you are in compliance with all of the requirements of CAN-SPAM.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 11th, 2008 at 9:24 am and is filed under Legal Protection. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.