In October 2003, three interactive marketing associations—Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), NAI’s Email Service Provider Coalition (ESPC) and TRUSTe collaborated to increase industry accountability. The pledge aims to establish definitions that distinguish legitimate email marketing from spam.
“This pledge is a meaningful promise to consumers,” says Fran Maier, executive director and president of TRUSTe. “It requires companies to respect their customers’ preferences. That means more protection for consumers’ in-boxes, more choice, more privacy.”
The following is the pledge in its entirety.
Email Marketing Pledge
1. Unsolicited Commercial Email
Unsolicited commercial email must not be sent.
2. Commercial Email
a. Commercial email must not be sent to an individual's email address unless one of the following situations exists:
i. There is an existing business relationship; or
ii. Prior informed consent of the individual has been obtained.
3.
Content of Commercial Emaila. Every commercial email must include an opportunity for the recipient to
unsubscribe from receiving such email in the future. Such requests to unsubscribe must be processed promptly and the recipient should be informed of the length of time required for processing.
b. Commercial email must not include "from address" fields, subject lines and message bodies that are misleading, false or deceptive. Subject lines must not mislead as to the content and purpose of the message.
4.
Gathering of Email Addressesa. Email addresses must not be gathered through surreptitious methods (e.g., scraping or harvesting).
Definitions:
Commercial Email: Email messages, sent in volume, the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a product or service.
Business Relationship: A relationship between the sender of an email message and the recipient. Such a relationship may be created through the facilitation or completion of a commercial transaction between the sender and a recipient. A business relationship may also be created through prior correspondence initiated by an individual, including requests for information, responses to questionnaires or surveys, responses to sweepstakes or contests, or offline contact.
Informed Consent: A mechanism through which an individual is clearly and fully notified of the collection and use of an email address and has consented prior to such collection and use. Informed Consent may be implemented in the following forms:
- Opt-in: At the point of email address collection, a person has affirmatively requested to be included on an email list to receive commercial email. No confirmation email is sent and the person is not required to take further action to be included on the email list.
- Confirmed Opt-in: At the point of email address collection, a person has affirmatively requested to be included on an email list to receive commercial email. An email is subsequently sent to the person, notifying the person that their email address has been added to the email list. The person is not required to take further action to be included on the email list.
- Double Opt-in: At the point of email address collection, a person has affirmatively requested to be included on an email list to receive commercial email. An email is subsequently sent to the person, notifying the person that some action is necessary before their email address will be added to the email list.
Unsubscribe: A mechanism through which an individual may request that he or she no longer receive commercial email.
Unsolicited Commercial Email: Commercial Email sent without an existing business relationship or prior informed consent.
Source: IAB, NAI-ESPC and TRUSTe, 2003.
