What is the CAN-SPAM Act?
The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM) is a US federal law enacted in 2003 codified at 15 U.S.C. Sec. 7701 et. seq. that establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to opt-out, imposes restrictions on sexually explicit content, and spells out tough penalties for violations.
CAN-SPAM covers email and similar means of direct communication (e.g. messages sent via Facebook or MySpace.)
While recognizing the significance and convenience of electronic messaging, Congress also acknowledged the exponential growth of unsolicited commercial messages “may result in costs to recipients who cannot refuse to accept such mail” and increase the volume of mail to where wanted mail may be “lost, overlooked, or discarded”. In addition, the findings section of the act points to the fact that some of that mail “contains material that many recipients may consider vulgar or pornographic in nature.” The goals of the CAN-SPAM act are to ensure that:
- “senders of commercial electronic mail do not mislead recipients as to the source or content of such mail”; and
- “recipients of commercial electronic mail have a right to decline to receive additional commercial electronic mail from the same source.”
