What is CAN-SPAM Act?
CAN-SPAM is the US federal law that sets rules for commercial email, including business-to-business email, and gives recipients the right to stop receiving it.
Also called: CAN-SPAM.
CAN-SPAM does not require permission before sending. It regulates how commercial email is sent. The FTC's compliance guide lists the requirements: no false or misleading header information, no deceptive subject lines, identify the message as an ad, include a valid physical postal address, tell recipients how to opt out, honour opt-outs promptly, and monitor anyone sending on your behalf.
Opt-outs must keep working for at least 30 days after a message is sent and be honoured within 10 business days, and once someone opts out you may not sell or transfer their address. The FTC guide says plainly that the law makes no exception for business-to-business email. Each separate email in violation can cost up to $53,088, and both the sender and the company whose product is promoted can be held responsible.
Section 7704(b) adds an aggravated violation for addresses obtained by harvesting from sites that say they will not transfer addresses, or generated by combining names, letters or numbers into permutations; see email permutation.
This is a plain-English summary, not legal advice. The CAN-SPAM checker checks a draft for the required elements, and the guide on buying email lists covers the wider picture.