Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Question about CAN Spam Act

This refers to section 5 of the CAN Spam Act 2003. If I purchse targeted non-optin lists for emailing promotion and I follow the rules layed out in section 4 subsection (a) will I be breaking the law to send to this list. Let's say I buy a list of Yahoo email addresses and send an unsolicited commercial email to them will this violate any of the CAN Spam Act. This is assuming the email itself does not violate any of the rules in section subsection (a).

I would appreciate any information you can give me.

Thanks,

Meridith


Asked on 4/21/05, 8:05 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Timothy J. Walton Internet Attorney

Re: Question about CAN Spam Act

In general, if you are in compliance with CAN SPAM you are not in violation.

However, the other thing to consider is state laws. CAN SPAM did not eliminate all state regulation of email advertising. Several states have laws about misleading subject lines, for example.

Moreover, even if a state does not have a specific law regulating email, it likely has generic advertising laws that would govern the content of an email messages.

And in some states, an ISP may be able to sue under the common law for excessive load on its servers.

If you are going to market using unsolicited commercial email, you should have a competent attorney review your message (and perhaps your list) to advise you about reduing the risk of exposure to liability.

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Answered on 4/21/05, 11:04 pm


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