Unsolicited Commercial Emails/SPAM

 

Background

ERA conducted a survey on SPAM with results indicating that a significant number of members are engaged in commercial emailing. ERA worked with members of Congress to help educate legislators on a number of industry specific issues relating to this legislation. While not perfect, the legislation that resulted had a number of industry-friendly components, primarily state preemption language that overrides a law scheduled to be enacted in California which has an opt-in component. Legislation reached final passage and became law on January 1, 2004. ERA is actively engaged on this issue and continues to provide industry comments as Congress revisits the provisions of this legislation.

ERA's Comments on SPAM

On June 27, ERA filed comments with the FTC on proposed implementation guidelines for the CAN-SPAM Act.  In these comments., ERA urges the Commission to: (1) clarify the standard for designating a single entity as the "sender" of messages involving multiple advertisers; (2) provide a "safe harbor" for marketers who rely on third-party vendors or service providers to assist in disseminating messages; (3) retain the 10-day period for processing opt-out requests; (4) allow opt-out requests to expire within five years; (5) allow marketers to verify opt-out requests by requesting additional information from message recipients; and (6) clarify that “forward to a friend” -mail messages are outside the scope of the Act, regardless of whether an inducement is provided to the consumer forwarding such message.

 
For a list of other industry issues that ERA is constantly monitoring, please click here.