California's anti-spam law may make things difficult for email marketers

Legitimate email marketers could be impacted by a new bill before the California State Legislature aimed at hampering the efforts of spammers. The proposed bill could make things more difficult for legitimate marketers, especially in the short term, but long term impact could harm legitimate marketers as well.

by Kristina Knight

AB 2950, co-sponsored by Assembly Member Jared Huffman and Dan Balsam, would allow consumers to sue spammers and email advertisers for up to $1 million if false or deceptive subject lines are used in messages and if misleading advertising copy is included in the body of an email. For legitimate marketers, this is an indicator that the body copy and subject lines of all marketing messages need to be watched closely.

The subject lines of messages should honestly reflect the content included and the advertising message included in the body should be honest as well. While most legitimate marketers are very careful about what information is included in a message, being vigilant is more important than ever.

Some online marketers and companies as well as the American Electronics Association do not like the proposed bill. They say that the bill does not account for cases when mistakes are made accidentally.

The proposed bill is just another reason that email marketers may want to consider authentication services for their messages. By authenticating messages, email marketers can be more certain that an email will reach the inbox of a user and be read because once the message is certified, it will not be delivered to the junk or spam folder.