For Release: May 12, 2005

The Federal Trade Commission published a Federal Register notice today seeking public comment on certain definitions and substantive provisions under the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM or the Act).

In this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), the Commission proposes rule provisions on five topics: (1) defining the term “person,” a term used repeatedly throughout the Act but not defined there; (2) modifying the definition of “sender” to make it easier to determine which of multiple parties advertising in a single e-mail message will be responsible for complying with the Act’s “opt-out” requirements; (3) clarifying that Post Office boxes and private mailboxes established pursuant to United States Postal Service regulations constitute "valid physical postal addresses" within the meaning of the Act; (4) shortening from ten days to three the time a sender may take before honoring a recipient's opt-out request; and (5) clarifying that to submit a valid opt-out request, a recipient cannot be required to pay a fee, provide information other than his or her e-mail address and opt-out preferences, or take any steps other than sending a reply e-mail message or visiting a single Internet Web page.

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The NPRM also addresses a number of other topics that were raised in comments responding to the ANPR, although those topics are not the subject of any proposed rule provisions. These include: CAN-SPAM’s definition of “transactional or relationship message;” the Commission’s views on how CAN-SPAM applies to certain email marketing practices, including “forward-to-a-friend” e-mail marketing campaigns; and the Commission’s determination not to designate additional “aggravated violations” under section 7704(c)(2) of the Act.

• Press Release
• Text of the Federal Register Notice [Register PDF Format]