Email Compliance for Affiliate MarketingWhat’s new and what you need to

knowMorgan Simon

Morgan Simon

Marketing Manager,Client Services

Sales,Client Services

Ecommerce Strategy,Affiliate Program

Implementation + Optimization

Morgan SimonIndependent Consulting

The Basics of Email Compliance

CAN SPAM Act of 2003 An opt-out law with modest

requirements

Primarily enforced by the FTC

Understanding the distinction between commercial and transactional messages

All emails must contain valid opt out mechanism, an be honored within 10 days

What it Really Means Don’t use false or misleading

email headers ever! Avoid deceptive subject lines Identify your message as an

advertisement Provide a valid physical

address Make it easy for recipients to

opt-out of future messages Honor opt-out requests

promptly Carefully monitor your

employees, affiliates, and sub-

contractors

The Basics (Continued)

FTC Act

• The FTC Act prohibits “unfair” and “deceptive” acts or practices

• Unfairness Substantial consumer injury Not reasonably avoidable Not outweighed by benefits to

consumers or competition

• Deception Material representation or omission Likely to mislead consumers acting

reasonably under the circumstances

• Sender▫ If the designated sender fails to comply

with its obligations, the other parties can be held accountable

What does the FTC do?

• The nation’s primary spam enforcer

• 95 spam cases filed by the FTC since 1997

Targets run the gamut from publicly-traded companies to pill and porn spammers

Defendants face civil penalties, disgorgement of assets, and injunctive relief

• www.ftc.gov/spam

The Cost of Compliance

Conduct Representative Case

Outcome

Deceptive subject line U.S. v. ValueClick $2.9 million penalty

Sexually explicit images without label

U.S. v. BangBros.com

$650,000 penalty

False headers FTC v. Atkinson > $19 million in judgments

No physical address in message

FTC v. Sili Neutraceuticals

$2.5 million judgment

No unsubscribe mechanism

U.S. v. Kodak Imaging Network, Inc.

$26,000 penalty

Deceptive message body

FTC v. International Research and Development

$15.8 million judgment

What’s New: International Laws

What’s New: International Laws

Canada’s Anti Spam Legislation Moderates commercial electronic messages – “any

electronic message that encourages participation in a commercial activity, regardless of whether there is an expectation of profit.”

General rule is that the sender will need to obtain consent from the recipient before sending the message and will need to include information that identifies the sender and enables the recipient to withdraw consent.

Once in effect, Canada’s anti-spam laws will set the rules regarding consent (as opposed to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.)

The act was passed in 2010 and will go into effect July 1, 2014.

What’s New: Going Beyond Compliance

Double Opt In: ALWAYS the best choice

Smart Marketing

Opt outs for Sender AND Advertiser

Deliverability

Responsive Email Designs (Result in decreased deletion and unsubscribes)

List Segmentation (For legal and performance reasons)

Conduct Internal Audit

What should you do as an affiliate/ a company that does third party email acquisition?

Be aware. Know the jurisdictions and laws for all countries you are doing business in.

Give your readers a VERY clear opt out mechanism.

Use the tools advertisers provide – scrubbing lists, etc.

Your email header should match your real domain name.

Email subject lines should be relevant to email content.

Monitor your program

Brush up on new laws quarterly

Questions? Let’s Connect.

Email: morgan@unsubcentral.com morgan.b.simon@gmail.com

Phone: 512-857-7303

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/morgansimon

Attending SXSW or AdTech SF? Shoot me an email.