What Is CAN-SPAM?

The CAN-SPAM Act is the law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishing requirements for commercial messages and giving recipients the right to stop emailing them. It was signed by President George W. Bush on December 16, 2003. It also spells out the tough penalties associated with the violation of the law.

The ACT makes no exception for business-to-business email as well. It includes all types of emails, including messages to former customers announcing a new product line – every company is obliged to comply with this law.

Each separate email that doesn't comply with the law is subject to penalties of up to $43,792, so non-compliance can bring huge losses to a company.

The Purpose of CAN-SPAM

Unwanted emails can be annoying. Thus, the CAN-SPAM ACT provides the recipients with the legal rights to unsubscribe to any emails that they don't want to see in the future.

Not only that, but CAN-SPAM also protects a sender's reputation by filtering out those who are reputable and abide by the law than those who don't.

What Are the Main Requirements of the CAN-SPAM Act?

The main requirements of the CAN-SPAM Act are as follows:

• Don't use any misleading header information - ‘From,’ ‘Reply-to,’ and routing information, including the originating domain name and email address.
• Don't use deceptive subject lines. It should accurately reflect the message of the content.
• Disclose clearly that your message is an advertisement.
• Must include the physical postal address, let the subscribers know where your company is located.
• The recipient must easily locate the option to unsubscribe from your future emails.
• You must honor a recipient's opt-out request within 10 business days.
• If you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you still can't contract away (outsource) your legal responsibility to comply with the law.

You can read the detailed guidelines on the official page.