The Spam Laws

The federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements for commercial emailers. Other U.S. federal anti-spam legislation is also under consideration, and many states have also enacted anti-spam laws. The European Union and dozens of other nations have enacted their own anti-spam measures that impact those sending commercial email abroad.

The following are some simple tips to ensure that your emails are compliant with the law.

Managing Subscribers

Use "Opt-In" subscriber lists.

  • Do NOT use e-mail addresses that have been harvested from Web sites.
  • Your e-mail addresses should be from visitors to your own Web site, who requested to be added to your mailing list.
  • If you purchased an e-mail list from a third party, ensure that all e-mail addresses were on an "Opt-In" list, relating to your e-mail topic or subject.
  • Use a "Double Opt-In" subscriber list, when possible.
  • See our Opt-In Lists page for more information.

Process all unsubscribe requests within one week.

  • This won't apply if you use our single-click unsubscribe method, because it's immediate and 100% automated. However, if you process your unsubscribes manually, you should ensure that each one is removed from your list within 7 days of the request.
  • If you decide to use an e-mail deployment company other than ThinkSend in the future, you should ensure that anyone on your Unsubscribe list here at ThinkSend, is NOT part of e-mail lists that you may be using with another deployment company.
  • Likewise, if you are coming to ThinkSend from another deployment company, and you are setting up new e-mail lists, please be sure to supply us with an unsubscribe list.

Sending Campaigns

Use a legitimate "From" name and email address.

  • The "From" name you specify in Step 1 of the Create/Send process must be a legitimate company or staff member name and the email address must be valid.

Use accurate and descriptive subject lines

  • The CAN-SPAM Act prohibits subject lines that mislead your recipients about the content of your email campaign. This doesn't mean you have to describe the entire content of the email in your subject line, but you should ensure that it is relevant and accurate.

Use a valid "Reply-to" address that can also function as an unsubscribe mechanism.

  • The CAN-SPAM Act requires your email campaign to have either a "Reply-to" address through which a recipient can unsubscribe from your list, or another "Internet-based mechanism, clearly and conspicuously displayed" that accomplishes the same thing.
  • ThinkSend makes it easy to comply. With our "single-click unsubscribe" method, you just add [unsubscribe] to your campaign and we'll do the rest. To stay on the safe side of the law, we recommend that you also use a valid "Reply-to" address that doubles as an unsubscribe address.

Always include your "real-world" mailing address.

  • The CAN-SPAM Act requires that your "valid physical postal address" must be included in every email marketing campaign. Make sure it's visible somewhere in your email.

Although we can't guarantee that following these steps will provide an absolute defense to a CAN-SPAM violation charge, we believe it's the best way to avoid committing a violation in the first place.