Email is ubiquitous in modern life with billions of emails – wanted and unwanted – sent each day. Since its enactment in 2003, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (“CAN-SPAM”) Act has attempted to curb the number of unwanted emails and impose some rules on a largely unregulated frontier. When followed, CAN-SPAM Act’s restrictions give email recipients some control over their inboxes and also maintain fairness in how emails present themselves. Failure to follow the CAN-SPAM Act can lead to penalties of up to $16,000 per violation.
As a practical matter, many organizations use vendors for their email marketing and other email services, and those vendors often assist the organizations in complying with the requirements of the CAN-SPAM Act. Nonetheless, the party whose content is promoted via email must supervise the conduct of its vendors and employees in abiding by CAN-SPAM, or else risk possible sanctions.
The basic requirements of CAN-SPAM are:
1. Does your email message include: (a) complete and accurate transmission and header information; (b) a “From” line that identifies your business as the sender; (c) a “Subject” line that accurately describes your message; and (d) an effective “opt-out” mechanism?
2. Does your email either contain an email address, physical address, or other mechanism that the recipient may use for opting-out of future marketing emails?
3. Is your opt-out mechanism effective for at least 30 days after your email is sent?
4. Do you honor all requests to opt-out within 10 days?
5. Does your mailing list include any recipient that has asked not to receive email from your business (opted-out)?
6. Have you tested the effectiveness of your opt-out mechanism?
7. Have you reviewed your vendor contracts to determine each party’s responsibilities with regard to CAN-SPAM compliance?
8. Are addresses of people that have opted-out transferred outside of your organization?
9. Does your organization use open relays or open proxies to send marketing email?
The following provides snapshot information concerning email marketing.
$44.25
Average return on each dollar of email marketing investment.1
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139.4 billion
Projected number of daily business emails in 2018.2
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2.5 billion
Estimated number of email users.3
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9,185
Number of complaints received by the FTC in a year concerning unsolicited email.4
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[1] Amanda Nelson, 25 Mind Blowing Email Marketing Stats, Salesforce Blog, (July 12, 2013), https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2013/07/email-marketing-stats.html.
[2] Sara Radicati, Email Statistics Report, 2014-2018, (April 2014), http://www.radicati.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Email-Statistics-Report-2014-2018-Executive-Summary.pdf.
[3] Id.
[4] FTC, Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book for January – December 2014, (February 2015), https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/consumer-sentinel-network-data-book-january-december-2014/sentinel-cy2014-1.pdf.