
Working within CAN-SPAM
On this page, we discuss the CAN-SPAM Act 2003 rules, what they mean and how we can all safely work within them. The Act is a US national standard, signed into law by President George W Bush in 2003. CAN-SPAM derives from the wording:
Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing.
Marketwise Mini Guide to CAN-SPAM
In many ways, CAN-SPAM is less onerous than its European equivalent, GDPR. Firstly, CAN-SPAM only applies to electronic messages that are primarily related to sales and marketing activities of a commercial product. GDPR covers any type of interaction. There are three main topic areas that are covered by CAN-SPAM:
The message content
- The Subject line must not mislead. It should not deceive the recipient in order to increase the chances of opening the message.
- The “From” field must accurately represent who the message is from.
- Physical address. There must be an accurate physical address listed in the content of the message.
- Adult content. If the content of a message could be classified as adult content, the message must contain a clear warning label.
Message sending requirements
- There must be an unsubscribe option, which additionally must be below the message content
- Messages must contain at least one sentence.
- A message cannot by empty “null”.
- The message cannot be sent to harvested email addresses.
Unsubscribing requirements
- Unsubscribing requests must be implemented within 10 business days.
- Suppression lists must be used, to ensure unsubscribed users wishes are respected.
- Unsubscribe requests cannot ask for money.
- An unsubscribe request landing page must use a single webpage
- A simple email reply to unsubscribe is acceptable.
- The only information requested in order to unsubscribe, is an email address and any opt-out preferences.
Marketwise has worked within CAN-SPAM rules for many years. If you have any questions about your compliance, please get in contact.