New Anti-Spam Rules for 2008
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a new Anti-Spam regulations under the 2003 CAN-SPAM Act to go into effect later this year. There were some changes and a significant lack of change.
Unchanged is the 10 day limit that senders of commercial emails have to honor an opt-out request. The new regulations are discussed below. But first... a clarification. Acts are passed by congress, they are often of big picture things. Often they tell a commission or some administrative agency to "pass regulations to implement this big picture." In the case of the CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-solicited Pornography And Marketing) the FTC was charged with making the regulations, and this is one of them.
Here the summary of the new 2008 regulations:
(1) adds a definition of the term “person”;
(2) modifies the term “sender” in those instances where a single email message contains advertisements for the products, services, or websites of multiple entities;
(3) clarifies that a sender may comply with the require of providing a physical address in all commercial emails by including in a commercial email message a post office box or private mailbox established pursuant to United States Postal Service regulations; and
(4) clarifies that to submit a valid opt-out request, a recipient cannot be required to pay a fee, provide information other than his or her email address and opt-out preferences, or take any steps other than sending a reply email message or visiting a single page on an Internet website.
If you want more info, feel free to email us at nina at buslaw dotcom
