Join us as we take a look at what's new in email compliance, from updated international laws to CAN-SPAM to looking beyond compliance at best practices for email acquisition. About Morgan Simon Morgan has worked with hundreds of clients, from small networks to Fortune 500 brands to help launch, grow and manage their affiliate programs. She currently works as a Marketing Manager at UnsubCentral, the industry's leading compliance and suppression management solution. Morgan is passionate about the performance marketing industry - from tracking to strategy to staying compliant. Want to Connect? You can reach Morgan at morgan.b.simon@gmail.com or on LinkedIn at http://Linkedin.com/in/morgansimon The presentation is from the Austin Digital Marketing Meetup on Tuesday, February 25, 2014: http://www.meetup.com/affiliate-summit-austin/events/163521792/

1. Email Compliance for Affiliate Marketing
What’s new and what you need to know
Morgan Simon

2. Morgan Simon
Marketing Manager,
Client Services
Sales,
Client Services
Morgan Simon
Independent Consulting
Ecommerce Strategy,
Affiliate Program
Implementation + Optimization

3. The Basics of Email Compliance
CAN SPAM Act of 2003
 An opt-out law with modest
requirements
 Primarily enforced by the FTC
What it Really Means



 Understanding the distinction
between commercial and
transactional messages


 All emails must contain valid
opt out mechanism, an be
honored within 10 days


Don’t use false or misleading
email headers ever!
Avoid deceptive subject lines
Identify your message as an
advertisement
Provide a valid physical address
Make it easy for recipients to
opt-out of future messages
Honor opt-out requests
promptly
Carefully monitor your
employees, affiliates, and subcontractors

4. The Basics (Continued)
FTC Act
• The FTC Act prohibits “unfair” and
“deceptive” acts or practices
• Unfairness
 Substantial consumer injury
 Not reasonably avoidable
 Not outweighed by benefits to
consumers or competition
• Deception
 Material representation or omission
 Likely to mislead consumers acting
reasonably under the circumstances
• Sender
▫ If the designated sender fails to comply
with its obligations, the other parties
can be held accountable
What does the FTC do?
• The nation’s primary spam
enforcer
• 95 spam cases filed by the FTC
since 1997
 Targets run the gamut from
publicly-traded companies to
pill and porn spammers
 Defendants face civil
penalties, disgorgement of
assets, and injunctive relief
• www.ftc.gov/spam

5. The Cost of Compliance
Conduct
Representative Case
Outcome
Deceptive subject line
U.S. v. ValueClick
$2.9 million
penalty
Sexually explicit images
without label
U.S. v. BangBros.com
$650,000 penalty
False headers
FTC v. Atkinson
> $19 million in
judgments
No physical address in
message
FTC v. Sili
Neutraceuticals
$2.5 million
judgment
No unsubscribe
mechanism
U.S. v. Kodak Imaging
Network, Inc.
$26,000 penalty
Deceptive message body
FTC v. International
Research and
Development
$15.8 million
judgment

6. What’s New: International Laws

7. What’s New: International Laws
Canada’s Anti Spam Legislation
 Moderates commercial electronic messages – “any electronic
message that encourages participation in a commercial activity,
regardless of whether there is an expectation of profit.”
 General rule is that the sender will need to obtain consent from
the recipient before sending the message and will need to
include information that identifies the sender and enables the
recipient to withdraw consent.
 Once in effect, Canada’s anti-spam laws will set the rules
regarding consent (as opposed to the Personal Information
Protection and Electronic Documents Act.)
 The act was passed in 2010 and will go into effect July 1, 2014.

8. What’s New: Going Beyond Compliance
 Double Opt In: ALWAYS the best choice
 Smart Marketing
 Opt outs for Sender AND Advertiser
 Deliverability
 Responsive Email Designs (Result in decreased deletion and
unsubscribes)
 List Segmentation (For legal and performance reasons)
 Conduct Internal Audit

9. What should you do as an affiliate/ a company
that does third party email acquisition?
 Be aware. Know the jurisdictions and laws for all
countries you are doing business in.
 Give your readers a VERY clear opt out mechanism.
 Use the tools advertisers provide – scrubbing lists, etc.
 Your email header should match your real domain
name.
 Email subject lines should be relevant to email content.
 Monitor your program
 Brush up on new laws quarterly

10. Questions? Let’s Connect.
Email: morgan@unsubcentral.com
morgan.b.simon@gmail.com
Phone: 512-857-7303
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/morgansimon
Attending SXSW or AdTech SF? Shoot me an email.