Direct Marketing Know How

REQUIREMENTS FOR COMMERCIAL E-MAIL

The Can Spam Act of 2003, will require that all e-mail - including business-to-consumer and business-to-business - for which the primary purpose is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service to include:

**Clear and conspicuous notice of the opportunity to decline to receive further commercial e-mail messages from the sender.

**A functioning return e-mail address or other Internet-based mechanism that is clearly and conspicuously displayed that recipients can use to request not to receive future advertisements or promotions.

**Clear and conspicuous identification that the e-mail is an advertisement or solicitation. The sender of the e-mail is responsible for determining how to indicate that the message is a solicitation (i.e., there is no requirement to include any specific language such as "ADV" in the subject line). However, if the recipient has provided affirmative consent to receive the message, then this identification is not required.

**A valid physical postal address of the sender. A post-office box (PO Box) or mail-drop does not suffice. These requirements on commercial e-mail will not apply to "transactional or relationship" e-mail messages, such as e-mail about account balances, memberships, subscriptions, or other ongoing commercial relationships that are not primarily solicitations.