The CAN-SPAM Act is the US law on commercial email. It covers any email whose main purpose is to advertise or promote something, sent to someone in the US, wherever your business is. It applies to you as the sender.
This is general guidance on how SplashSend helps, not legal advice.
What SplashSend does
Honest sender details
The From name is your sender name, and you have to verify your sender email before you can send. Your emails come from your own address once your domain is authenticated. Until then they come from noreply@send.splashsend.com, with replies going to you.
Your postal address
The law asks for a valid postal address in every email. A PO box registered with the US Postal Service counts, and so does a private mailbox at a mail receiving agency. SplashSend fills it in at the bottom of your emails from Setup → Business address. If you haven't added one, or a design leaves it out, you see a note before a campaign goes out and on the Cruise page, and the email can still be sent, so add one if you email people in the US. See What's checked before an email goes out.
A clear way to opt out
Every email has an unsubscribe link, and email apps that support it show a one-click unsubscribe button. The law gives you ten business days to act on an opt-out, and asks for the link to keep working for at least 30 days after you send. In SplashSend an unsubscribe takes effect as soon as it's used, and the link keeps working for as long as your account is open.
Bounces and complaints
SplashSend stops emailing addresses that bounce for good or keep bouncing, and anyone who reports you as spam is unsubscribed, so you can't carry on emailing them by mistake.
What's yours to do
- Write subject lines that match what's in the email. Suggestions from SplashSend's writing help are a starting point, and you choose what goes out.
- Make it clear an email is an advert, where the law expects that.
- Act on opt-outs that reach you another way, such as a reply asking you to stop, within ten business days. Open the person in People and click Unsubscribe. For several people at once, tick them in the grid and click Unsubscribe in the bar that appears.
- Only email people you're allowed to. Bought lists are against our Terms.
- If a teammate or an agency sends emails from your account, you're still responsible for what they send.
Penalties
Each email that breaks the Act can bring a penalty of more than $50,000, and the Federal Trade Commission enforces it. Email providers react to spam complaints much sooner than a regulator does.
See also Sending responsibly.