The commercial email still has to say what it is

Answer A solo ad that sells is a commercial email, and the FTC's CAN-SPAM guide still applies to it. The header has to identify who initiated the message. The body has to tell people how to opt out of all marketing mail, and that request has to be honored within 10 business days. This note is not legal advice. It is the checklist to put in the quote.

The note that started this: CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business, Federal Trade Commission.

Buyers talk about clicks. The statute talks about the message. If you are placing an offer inside someone else's email, you do not get to borrow their compliance and skip your own. The person who initiates the commercial mail, and the person who pays to have an offer inserted, both have a reason to read the same page before the send.

The page that started this note is the Federal Trade Commission's CAN-SPAM Act compliance guide for business. It is a standing guide, not an August announcement. The first requirement in the rundown is blunt. Do not use false or misleading header information. The From, To, Reply-To, and routing information, including the originating domain name and email address, must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message. A from-name that implies a relationship the sender does not have is the kind of header this line is about.

What does the FTC say a commercial email header must do?

The FTC's CAN-SPAM guide says not to use false or misleading header information. The From, To, Reply-To, and routing information, including the originating domain name and email address, must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.

On a solo ad, the list owner usually initiates the transmission. The buyer supplies the offer. The header still has to name a real initiator, at a real domain, with a reply path that is not a costume. A buyer who insists on a from-name the list has never used is asking the seller to put a misleading author on the list's own mail. Refuse that. The complaint, and the legal exposure, will not sort itself neatly into the buyer's pocket.

The guide also expects the message to identify itself as an advertisement, to include a valid physical postal address, and to keep the subject line from being deceptive. Those are the ordinary duties of commercial mail. A clever subject that hides the offer is not a growth tactic. It is the line the guide tells you not to cross. If the reader has a prior relationship that changes the ad-label duty, that is a question for a lawyer who has the facts, not a sentence a seller should invent in a swipe file.

• The From, Reply-To, and domain identify the real initiator.
• The subject describes the email the body actually contains.
• A physical postal address is in the message.
• The buyer has seen that block before paying.

How must a solo ad let people opt out?

The same guide says the message must tell recipients how to opt out, in a way an ordinary person can recognize, and must include the option to stop all marketing messages. The opt-out has to keep working for at least 30 days after the send, and the request has to be honored within 10 business days.

The guide is specific about what you may not do. You cannot charge a fee. You cannot require personally identifying information beyond an email address. You cannot make the person take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single web page. A menu of preferences is allowed. The option to stop all marketing messages from you has to be in that menu. A solo ad that links to a quiz, a checkout, and a preference center with no stop-all choice is not the exit the guide describes.

Members and subscribers do not lose the right to opt out of marketing mail. The guide says so in its own heading. A seller who tells you the list opted in, so no exit is required, has skipped that paragraph. Transactional mail is a narrower category. A pitch for an affiliate offer is not an order receipt.

Does a rented list change those duties?

No. A solo ad is still a commercial email if its job is to sell. The list owner and the person who puts the offer in the mail both need the header, the exit, and the postal address to be real. This note is not legal advice.

Put the postal address, the stop-all line, and the from-name in the quote as they will appear. Ask who honors the opt-out, the seller's platform or a link on your page, and how a request is recorded inside 10 business days. If the answer is that opt-outs are your landing page's problem, the list owner is still the one whose readers will mark the next letter as junk.

The desk on solo ads for affiliate marketing starts from the same place. Say what the mail is. Say who sent it. Say how to leave. Then talk about the click. The guide is the floor. It is not a promise that a lawful email will reach the inbox, and it is not a bill for a fine this page does not quote.