The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (also known as CAN-SPAM) became a United States federal law on 1 January 2004. Its aim is to turn the tide on the increasing volume of unsolicited mail that email account holders receive as a result of spam, phishing attacks, and other fraudulent or deceptive emails.

The act sets into law regulations on how email address lists may be collected, how commercial electronic email messages may be sent, and restricts the composition of the email content. It also applies to virtually any businesses in the United States that send out email promotions, circulars, or marketing material.

Although the purpose of CAN-SPAM is to prevent illegitimate bulk spam mailings, it also affects how legitimate email marketers can send valid mailings to their customers. In order to comply with CAN-SPAM, there are restrictions and requirements that must be followed in order to avoid criminal prosecution.

 

Resources for email marketers

 

Below are a number of resources that you may find useful:

• A summary of CAN-SPAM from the US Federal Fair Trade Commission
• Full text of the CAN-SPAM Act
• Consumer facts on CAN-SPAM from the US Federal Communications Commission

 

Confused? AD-Advice can help

 

CAN-SPAM compliance is vital to email marketing, but we realize that you might not have the time to get yourself up to speed. We can help you ensure that your email marketing not only meets, but also exceeds CAN-SPAM compliance, while not sacrificing ROI or campaign effectiveness.

To find out more, please fill out our online contact form.