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Do You Need to Comply with the Can-Spam Act?
By HEP Development Services The CAN-SPAM Act is a Federal legislation effective January 1, 2004 to prohibit predatory and abusive commercial email practices. Officially, it is “Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003” and supercedes any state legislation. Enforcement is through the Federal Trade Commission and imposes requirements on senders of commercial e-mails to identify themselves honestly and describe fairly the product or service they are promoting. The Act provides consumers with an opportunity to demand an organization cease sending commercial e-mail messages. Penalties range from civil to criminal for the most egregious violations. CAN-SPAM applies to the activities of for-profit and non-profit entities. Importantly: Commercial e-mails are defined as “any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service. Commercial e-mails may cover such things as products offered by a University to third parties; trips (alumni trips organized by a University office), event tickets, or subscriptions to journals, magazines, or newsletters. In the CAN-SPAM Act, Congress did not create a pre-existing or current business relationship exemption. Thus, any organization that sends marketing-related material to third parties by e-mail – whether new or established customers – should comply with the requirements of the Act because its e-mails may well be viewed as commercial messages. Transactional e-mails have the primary purpose to: For more information on HEP Development Services visit www.hepdata.com. May 2004 | ||
