Anti-Spam Legislation In The United States

As a group constantly involved in marketing via technology, we try our best to stay on top of legal issues that affect our methods for doing business. A friend recently asked about legislation about email marketing. Here was my reply; I hope it helps in your marketing efforts:

The most stringent of regulations in the US result from the CAN-SPAM act, initiated in 2003, and updated several times since. This governs how data is acquired, message content and proper identification, and honor opt-out requests. More info at http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus61-can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business.

A few states in the US also assert regulation. The Georgia Slam Spam Act, for instance, legislates types of emails coming to its residents are acceptable.

·         Send a high volume of spam, as in more than 10,000 messages in a 24-hour period;

·         Generate more than $1,000 in revenue from a single spam message or more than $50,000 from all spam transmitted to a single ISP; or

·         Knowingly use a minor to assist in transmitting spam. The criminal penalty for a felony of this nature is a fine of up to $50,000, imprisonment for up to five years, or both. E-mails that are deceptive but do not meet the above criteria are punishable as a misdemeanor, with a penalty of up to $1,000, imprisonment for up to 12 months, or both. Enforcement of this law is the shared responsibility of Georgia’s Attorney General and local district attorneys and law enforcement units.

More on Georgia Slam Spam Act can be found at:

http://www.georgia.gov/00/article/0,2086,5426814_5684686_39006130,00.html

Obviously, it’s important to comply with laws because fines can be costly.

That’s where using an Email Service Provider, such as OnlineOutbox can come in handy. In addition to ensuring compliance with our double opt-in methodology and our subscription management forms, our server technology maintains high levels of deliverability (via our multi-threading capabilities), while keeping risk to the marketer minimal (providing a buffer layer via our multi-tiered server structure). An Email Service Provider allows users to send large quantities of opt-in emails to subscribers, raising the efficacy of electronic marketing campaigns.

Happy Marketing…