What is CAN-SPAM?
CAN-SPAM stands for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing.
It’s a law of rules for commercial email and messages which:
- Can stop businesses sending messages and emails to people
- Details the penalties for breaking this law
More about CAN-SPAM
The CAN-SPAM act was passed in 2003.
This law applies to:
- Bulk emails
- Business to business emails
- Emails that promote commercial website content
- Any electronic mail message like:
- Commercial advertisements
- Commercial promotions of products or services
But this law exempts:
- Transactional messages
- Relationship messages
So marketers and business owners emails need to comply in:
- Unsubscribe
- Content
- Sending behaviour
Penalties for not complying with the CAN-SPAM Act
Each email that breaks the CAN-SPAM Act in the US will be fined $16,000 by the FTC.
In the UK, a judge can fine you £5000 or $6,500 or a jury’s fine can be unlimited.
CAN-SPAM Compliance Rules
To be CAN-SPAM compliant with your email messages, follow these rules:
What To Do
- In every email you send, include your valid physical postal address
- Make opting out easy on every email you send and unsubscribe them in 10 business days
- Use “From,” “To” and “Reply to” to show who is sending the message and include the domain name and email address
What Not To Do
- Don’t sell or transfer email addresses to another list
- Don’t make unsubscribing from emails hard, like:
- Charging a fee
- Getting personal identity information, more than an email address
- Taking extra steps, more than replying to an email or visiting a webpage
- Don’t misrepresent email content with deceptive subject lines
Note: This is blog post is not legal advice and i’m not a lawyer.
For better advice on this subject:
- Go to Google
- Look up the Spam laws in your own country
So you will be better informed on this topic.
But for those you didn’t know a thing about CAN-SPAM then I hope this post helps keep you out of trouble.