"Remove Me" Responses and
Responsibilities:
Email Marketers Must Honor "Unsubscribe" Claims
Some marketers send email as a quick and
cheap way to promote their goods and services. Be aware that the claims that
you make in any advertisement for your products or services, including those
sent by email, must be truthful. This means that you must honor any promises
you make to remove consumers from email mailing lists.
If your email solicitations claim that
consumers can opt-out of receiving future messages by following your removal
instructions, such as "click here to unsubscribe" or "reply for removal,"
then the removal options must function as you claim. That means any
hyperlinks in the email message must be active and the unsubscribe process
must work. Keep in mind:
-
You should review the removal claims
made in your email solicitations to ensure that you are complying with any
representations that you make.
-
If you provide consumers a hyperlink
for removal, then that hyperlink should be accessible by consumers.
-
If you provide an email address for
removal, then that address should be functioning and capable of receiving
removal requests. It may be deceptive to claim that consumers can
"unsubscribe" by responding to a "dead" email address.
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Any system in place to handle
unsubscribe requests should process those requests in an effective manner.
The Federal Trade Commission Act
prohibits unfair or deceptive advertising in any medium, including in email.
That is, advertising must tell the truth and not mislead consumers. A claim
can be misleading if it implies something that's not true or if it omits
information necessary to keep the claims from bring misleading.
Other points to consider if you market
through commercial email:
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Disclaimers and disclosures must be
clear and conspicuous. That is, consumers must be able to notice, read or
hear, and understand the information. Still, a disclaimer or disclosure
alone usually is not enough to remedy a false or deceptive claim.
-
If you promised refunds to dissatisfied
customers, you must make them.
The FTC works for the consumer to
prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the
marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop and
avoid them. To file a
complaint or to get free information
on consumer issues, visit
www.ftc.gov or
call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The
FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft and other fraud-related
complaints into
Consumer Sentinel, a
secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law
enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.
|
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION |
FOR THE CONSUMER |
1-877-FTC-HELP |
www.ftc.gov |
|
April 2002 |