CAN-SPAM Act of 2003
Regulation. US law that lists the guidelines, requirements, and penalties regarding the sending of commercial bulk email.
The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM) (15 U.S.C §§ 7701-7713) lists the guidelines, requirements, and potential penalties for noncompliance regarding the commercial use of email and the legal rights of recipients of commercial email. CAN-SPAM notes several requirements for commercial senders including, but not limited to:
- Senders may not use false or misleading headers.
- Senders may not use deceptive subject lines.
- Senders must give their recipients the option of opting out of commercial email.
- Senders must honor all opt-out requests.
To learn more about this law, see the US Federal Trade Commission's CAN-SPAM Act Compliance Guide.
Compliance doesn't guarantee delivery
The guidelines laid out in this law represent the "bare-minimum" regarding sending practices. Following these guidelines doesn't guarantee delivery to your recipients' inboxes.
To learn how to improve your sending practices, see Improve deliverability.
Not limited to bulk email
CAN-SPAM regulations go beyond bulk email. It covers any commercial email communication, including business-to-business and business-to-customer email.