Anaya Nolan
The CAN-SPAM Act, or Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing, is a law that establishes the rules for commercial emails and messages, giving recipients the right to have a business stop emailing them and outlining penalties for violations. Marketers and business owners must ensure their emails comply with three main areas: unsubscribe, content, and sending behaviour. This includes providing a valid physical address, a clear and obvious way to opt out, and honouring the unsubscribe request within 10 business days. HubSpot's Acceptable Use Policy outlines compliance with CAN-SPAM, including the use of HubL tokens in email footers for office location information and subscription preferences.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Passed in | 2003 |
| Purpose | To establish rules for commercial email and commercial messages, to give recipients the right to have a business stop emailing them, and to outline penalties for those who violate the law |
| Applicability | All commercial messages, including bulk email |
| Requirements | Include a valid physical postal address, provide a clear and obvious way to opt out, and honor the unsubscribe request within 10 business days |
| Penalties | $16,000 fine for each email that violates the CAN-SPAM Act |
| HubSpot Implementation | Include HubL tokens with office location and links to email subscription pages, and allow customization of the CAN-SPAM email footer |
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What You'll Learn
CAN-SPAM compliance for one-to-one sales emails
One-to-one sales emails sent through the HubSpot platform must comply with the CAN-SPAM Act. The CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing) is a law that establishes the rules for commercial emails and commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have a business stop emailing them, and outlines penalties for those who violate the law.
According to the FTC, if an email advertises or promotes a commercial product or service, including content on a website operated for a commercial purpose, it must comply with CAN-SPAM laws, especially if the email is a "cold email", meaning the sender has not established a prior relationship with the recipient.
To be CAN-SPAM compliant, your email messages should follow these rules:
- Include your valid physical postal address in every email you send out.
- Provide a clear and obvious way to opt out of every email you send out, and honour the unsubscribe within 10 business days.
- Do not use false or misleading header information. Your "From," "To," "Reply-To," and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.
- Do not use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
- Identify the message as an ad in a way that is "clear and conspicuous".
Each separate email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $53,088, so non-compliance can be costly.
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How to set up your CAN-SPAM email footer
The CAN-SPAM Act regulates commercial emails and gives recipients the right to stop receiving emails from a business. It is important to ensure that your email footers are CAN-SPAM compliant. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to set up your CAN-SPAM email footer:
- Include your physical address: The CAN-SPAM Act requires that all commercial emails include the sender's valid physical address. This is automatically added to the bottom of all marketing emails sent from HubSpot. You can edit this information by navigating to ""Marketing > Email" in your HubSpot account and clicking "Edit" in the "Footer" section. Ensure that the address details are clearly visible to the recipients.
- Provide an unsubscribe option: Your email footer must include a clear and obvious way for recipients to opt out of receiving future emails. This can be in the form of an "Unsubscribe" link or a "Manage Preferences" link. You can edit the language of these default links by navigating to "Marketing > Email", clicking on an existing marketing email, and then clicking on the "Settings" tab.
- Customise your email footer: If you are using a custom-coded email template, you can add the required CAN-SPAM tokens by navigating to "Content > Design Manager" in your HubSpot account. Select an email template, click on "Office Location Information", and edit the module in the inspector. You can also style the footer by changing the fonts, colours, and spacing to make it more appealing to your recipients.
- Ensure compliance for multiple brands or office locations: If you have multiple brands or office locations, you can configure different email footers for each. Marketing Hub Enterprise users can save multiple email footers by clicking on "Settings" in the top navigation bar and adding new office locations.
- Comply with international laws: If your organisation is located outside the US but uses a US-based email delivery service, you must still abide by US CAN-SPAM laws. Additionally, be sure to research and follow any other guidelines and laws surrounding consent for marketing emails in other countries.
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Unsubscribe, content, and sending behaviour rules
To comply with CAN-SPAM rules, your email messages must adhere to the following unsubscribe, content, and sending behaviour rules:
Unsubscribe Rules
You must provide a clear and obvious way for recipients to opt out of every email you send out. This includes providing a link or instructions for the recipient to unsubscribe. You must honour the unsubscribe request within 10 business days.
Content Rules
Every email you send out must include your valid physical postal address. You can include this in the email footer, along with the unsubscribe link and subscription management links. The CAN-SPAM email footer can be customized to include your office location and links to your email subscription pages.
Sending Behaviour Rules
The CAN-SPAM Act applies to all commercial messages, not just bulk emails. Therefore, you must ensure that every email you send complies with the Act. This includes one-to-one commercial emails. Emails must not be sent to addresses obtained via internet harvesting methods or any surreptitious means, such as scraping or harvesting.
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Penalties for violating the CAN-SPAM Act
The CAN-SPAM Act outlines requirements for commercial messages and gives recipients the right to stop receiving unsolicited messages. It also outlines requirements for labelling explicit content. The penalties for violating the CAN-SPAM Act can be steep, with each separate email in violation of the law subject to penalties of up to $53,088, and more than one party can be held responsible for the same message. This means that non-compliance can be extremely costly for businesses.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is responsible for enforcing the CAN-SPAM Act, and the law also grants authority to the Department of Justice and state attorneys general to enforce the requirements. The FTC has obtained significant settlements in the past for alleged violations of the Act, including a $900,000 consent decree against Jumpstart Technologies, LLC.
In addition to civil penalties, individuals may be required to pay redress to consumers under the FTC Act. The CAN-SPAM Act also provides for criminal penalties, including imprisonment, for certain aggravated violations. These violations include accessing someone else's computer to send spam without permission, using false information to register for multiple email accounts, and harvesting email addresses.
The cost of non-compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act can quickly add up for businesses, with penalties reaching as high as $51,744 per violation. Aggravated violations can result in Internet Service Providers (ISPs) seeking injunctive relief, actual and statutory damages, and attorney and legal costs. The negative publicity from violating the CAN-SPAM Act can also have a significant impact on a company's reputation and may be more damaging than the financial penalties.
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International laws and regulations, e.g., CASL, GDPR
International laws and regulations, such as CASL, GDPR, and the CAN-SPAM Act, are crucial pieces of legislation that govern the use of electronic communications and data protection. These laws are designed to protect individuals' privacy and ensure that organizations handle personal information securely and responsibly.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into effect in 2016 and became mandatory on May 25, 2018, is a comprehensive data protection law enacted by the European Union (EU). The GDPR applies not only to organizations within the EU but also to any organization worldwide that processes the personal data of EU citizens or offers goods and services to them. This far-reaching regulation has hundreds of pages of requirements, making compliance a challenging task, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The penalties for violating the GDPR are severe, with fines reaching up to €20 million or 4% of global revenue, whichever is higher. Additionally, data subjects have the right to seek compensation for any damages caused by non-compliance. The right to privacy, as outlined in the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights, forms the basis for the GDPR, demonstrating the EU's commitment to protecting individuals' personal information in the digital age.
Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) is another critical piece of legislation that regulates commercial electronic messages. This law prohibits the sending of commercial messages to email addresses obtained through internet harvesting methods or without the recipient's consent. Violations of CASL can result in penalties, similar to those under the CAN-SPAM Act.
The CAN-SPAM Act, enacted in 2003, establishes the rules for commercial emails and messages, giving recipients the right to stop receiving such communications from businesses. The law applies to all commercial messages, regardless of volume, and non-compliance can result in fines of $16,000 per email.
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Frequently asked questions
Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing (CAN-SPAM) is a law that establishes the rules for commercial email and commercial messages, gives recipients the right to stop businesses from emailing them, and outlines penalties for those who violate the law.
HubSpot manages spam form submissions by automatically validating the form's email, first name, and last name fields. If the email address is not formatted correctly, or if the email has globally bounced, the form cannot be submitted. If a form is submitted with a URL or HTML tag in the first or last name field, it will be flagged as spam. Enabling CAPTCHA also adds a step to verify that a visitor is not a robot before they can submit the form.
By default, HubSpot includes HubL tokens that populate with your office location and links to your email subscription pages. To customize the content of your CAN-SPAM email footer, edit the Office Location Information module of your template in the design manager tool.
