Commercial Email Regulation Considerations

Sending unsolicited email puts your brand and company at risk. Consumers are increasingly aware of legislation regulating commercial email and intolerant of unsolicited mail in their inboxes. Repeated unsolicited emails can lead to complaints and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) blocking your emails. Learn some basic steps you can take as part of your compliance with regulations affecting commercial email like the CAN-SPAM Act and GDPR.

The CAN-SPAM Act is the U.S. Federal law regulating commercial email that took effect on January 1, 2004.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a comprehensive European privacy law that took effect on May 25, 2018. The GDPR regulates the “processing” of data for EU individuals, which includes collection, storage, transfer, or use. Any organization that processes personal data of EU individuals is within the scope of the GDPR, regardless of whether the organization has a physical presence in the EU. Although GDPR is larger than email, it includes specific requirements affecting commercial email.

Tips for commercial email:

• Make sure that subject lines are not deceptive or misleading.
• Always capture affirmative consent from your users.
• Process unsubscribe requests within 10 days and enforce them across your entire enterprise.
• For transactional or relationship messages, make sure that the subject line is non-promotional.
• Within the message, place the transactional content above any commercial content.