The CAN-SPAM Act was passed in 2003 by the US Congress and stands for "Controlling the Assault of Non Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act". This is the American law that governs the sending of commercial e-mails, and has been in effect since January 1, 2004. It institutes a right of opposition a posteriori to the sending of commercial e-mails.
Opt-out versus Opt-in
Whereas the European rule is based on Opt-in, i.e. the consumer must have given his permission to receive commercial e-mails. The CAN-SPAM Act obliges senders to unsubscribe (Opt-out) an e-mail address if the Internet user requests it. This means that in the United States, companies have the right to send a commercial e-mail to anyone until the person objects.
While the opt-out principle is what best characterizes the CAN-SPAM Act, there are of course other provisions:
- The information in the email header must be true. The From field must clearly identify the sender of the email;
- The subject of the e-mail must not mislead the recipient;
- An unsubscribe mechanism must be present in the email. For example in the form of an unsubscribe address or a hyperlink to an unsubscribe form. Options to unsubscribe only from certain types of communication can be provided. But it must always be possible to unsubscribe from all commercial messages;
- The email must be clearly identifiable as commercial. No question of pretending to be a friend of the recipient;
- A postal address must also be present in the e-mail.
To be a little more complete, we can also say that the technical means of unsubscribing must remain available 30 days after the commercial message was sent. As soon as the Internet user has declared his intention to no longer receive solicitations from the advertiser, the advertiser has 10 working days to comply. The e-mail address that has been opted out may no longer be resold or passed on to third parties.
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A controversial law
CAN-SPAM is a controversial law. Mainly because it legalized a large part of the spam practices in the United States, but also because it does not go in the same direction as the European legislation that was passed a year earlier (Directive of July 12, 2002 on Privacy). This last point is important, because it is a very important brake in the fight against Spam at the international level.
It should be noted that although the CAN-SPAM Act is a federal law, some American states use different legislation. This is the case, for example, in California, which has instituted the Opt-in rule.
More information:
- A summary of the CAN-SPAM Act on the U.S. Consumer Protection Commission's website: (in English)
- A Wikipedia article on the CAN-SPAM Act: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003 (in English)
