The CAN-SPAM Act Part 1

posted by SHAYGALLAGHER // March 18, 2009 // Market Your Website

Email spam -- the bulk transmission of unsolicited email - -has become a problem of epidemic proportions. Anyone with an email address has experienced the frustration of receiving hundreds of messages from businesses they have never heard of, advertising products they have no interest in. Even worse for the recipient, some of these emails are scams that cost consumers millions of dollars per year.

Spam also presents several problems for legitimate businesses: the clutter of unwanted email in a customer's in-box makes it more difficult for the customer to see your message, spam steals bandwidth from your company's network, and your employees' efficiency is reduced when they are forced to sort and delete spam from their own in-boxes.

Spam has become such a problem that the U.S. Congress enacted the CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) Act of 2003 to govern the use of commercial email. All businesses should be aware of the Act and follow its rules to avoid prosecution.

It is important to note that the CAN-SPAM Act only applies to commercial email whose purpose is primarily the advertising or promotion of a commercial product or service. The Act does not restrict "transactional or relationship" email, which is defined as:

• Email that confirms a transaction that the recipient has already agreed to with the sender.
• Information about the delivery of goods that the recipient has already agreed to with the sender.
• Warranty information, recalls, and other notifications related to a product that the recipient purchased from the sender.
• Information about changes to the recipient's pre-established account or status with the sender.

The CAN-SPAM Act took effect on January 1, 2004. At that time the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was authorized to monitor and enforce compliance, and the U.S. Department of Justice was authorized to prosecute cases. The Act has three primary goals:

• Ensure the "convenience and efficiency" of email as a means of communication by eliminating unsolicited email messages.
• Reduce the financial burden of "Internet access services, businesses, and educational and nonprofit institutions" who are unwilling transmitters and recipients of unsolicited email.
• Eliminate the possibility that anyone will receive, against their wishes, email messages that are deceptive, fraudulent, or "vulgar or pornographic in nature."

To accomplish these goals, the CAN-SPAM Act declares four broad principles:

• Recipients must give "affirmative consent" before receiving commercial email.
• Recipients of commercial email have a right to decline, or opt-out, of receiving further commercial e-mail.
• Senders of commercial email cannot mislead recipients concerning the origin of the email or its content. The commercial nature of the email must also be obvious and clear.
• Senders must use approved methods to obtain recipients' email addresses.

In part 2 of this series, we explain the Act's most important rules and how to adhere to them.

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Article Source: Verio