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I am not a lawyer, but I think the CAN-SPAM Act can help with this. The CAN-SPAM Act makes it illegal to send spam email, which is roughly defined as non-trans
by iamdamian 3y ago
I am not a lawyer, but I think the CAN-SPAM Act can help with this.
The CAN-SPAM Act makes it illegal to send spam email, which is roughly defined as non-transactional email that doesn't allow opt-out. (In fact, I think it's a little more stringent than that.) The penalty for violating the act is something like $50,000 per email.
While you can't bring a lawsuit against any company for violating this act, you can complain to the FTC, who is tasked with enforcing this. At the very least, threatening the company can go a long way.
If enough people know about this and use it, it could meaningfully make a dent in large companies abusing the 'transactional email' system for promotional ads.
- silisili 3y agoI don't know the law well enough, but I had this issue with Delta airlines, and when I called them on it, they replied that since I signed up as a member it doesn't apply to them. I then reported it to the FTC, but as expected, never heard a thing.
- iamdamian 3y agoThe FTC won't necessarily let you know when they take action, but my understanding is that with enough complaints, they will issue a fine. (So it's good to spread the word about this.) I've seen the issue you mention with Delta and other companies. I make it clear to them that my interpretation of this law is that membership does not magically make promotional emails transactional. Similarly, making a purchase on Amazon doesn't magically let you repeatedly send me ads (in the form of "limited time Prime Music discounts that come with your digital purchase").
- nathanaldensr 3y agoExperian was just fined for doing this, in case anyone didn't know.