The federal CAN-SPAM Act was signed into law in December 2003. It has defined the basic requirements for all marketing & bulk emails.

The terms below are mandatory for all bulk & commercial emails:

• All bulk/marketing emails include an unsubscribe link
• All unsubscribe requests must be honored within 10 days.
• The identity of the sender and the location of the email’s origin must be truthfully represented and available to the recipient.

You may note that these rules do not specifically prohibit sending Unsolicited Commercial Emails (UCE), however, the CAN-SPAM Act does provide a list of recommended best practices for email senders. Which are:

• Senders of commercial email (that is, non-personal and/or business-focused) must obtain permission from their recipients first. Senders can do this with a confirmed opt-in or signup form.
• When a sender obtains an opt-in they make a reasonable effort to verify a user’s identity.
• Evidence of subscribers’ permission is available within 72 hours of the request.
• Recipients should be informed where a sender obtained their information.
• The domain attached to your email has its own privacy policy.