CAN SPAM Act of 2003 (Pub. L. No. 108-187)

On December 16, 2003, President Bush signed the CAN-SPAM Act, which preempts laws passed in 38 states to address the growing influx of unsolicited commercial e-mail. Specifically, the CAN-SPAM Act preempts any state law that “expressly regulates the use of electronic mail to send commercial messages, except to the extent that any such statute, regulation, or rule prohibits falsity or deception in any portion of a commercial electronic mail message or information attached thereto.”

The federal protections in the CAN-SPAM Act are weaker than the restrictions on spam email in many of the state laws preempted by the Act. For example, California’s anti-spam law required consumers to “opt-in” to email lists rather than opt-out as CAN-SPAM requires. The National Association of Attorneys General opposed the CAN-SPAM Act because the legislation had “so many loopholes, exceptions, and high standards of proof, that it provides minimal consumer protections and creates too many burdens for effective enforcement.”

Sources:

Pub L. No. 108-187 (2003).

Letter from Internet Committee of the National Association of Attorneys General to House Speaker Hastert et. al. (Nov. 3, 2003).