ftc
As mentioned earlier, the FTC recently announced a proposed settlement with Experian, taking action against them for allegedly sending commercial emails while claiming those emails were transactional in nature. Meaning that users effectively couldn’t opt-out from email messaging that was ultimately believed by the FTC to be commercial in nature.Writing for the Ad Law Access blog, Gonzalo Mon, advertising lawyer at Kelley Drye & Warren, explains more about what’s going on here and what marketers should be aware of — the top point being, be very careful about what you call transactional. The “primary purpose” measure is something that the FTC takes very seriously. A short but important read, in my opinion.
This is an important one to share, because it highlights what can happen if you try too hard to characterize your emails as transactional, when they’re probably not. Leave out the unsub link and see what happens — you can end up with a poor sending reputation, a pile of spam complaints — or even end up getting the evil eye from the US Federal Trade Commission.Don’t risk it!Read the news release from the FTC here.
I saw somebody ask recently how best to label their email marketing messages as an advertisement. Their intent was to comply with CAN-SPAM, the US federal anti-spam law. Though I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, allow me to clarify it with my layman’s pants on, since CAN-SPAM misunderstandings and myths abound and this is an easy one to help folks understand.According to CAN-SPAM, you do NOT have to label your email as an advertisement, if you have “prior affirmative consent.” Meaning, if all your email is opt-in, you only send marketing messages to people who have explicitly signed up to receive such email from you, then you’re good. You don’t need to label the mail as advertising.But don’t take my word from it — here’s the relevant detail, straight from the fine folks at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC):”If recipients have given their prior affirmative consent…