The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (15 U.S.C. 7701, et seq., Public Law No. 108-187, was S.877 of the 108th United States Congress), signed into law by President George W. Bush on December 16, 2003, establishes the United States’ first national standards for the sending of commercial e-mail and requires the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to enforce its provisions.
from Wikipedia
Depending on your country and it laws you have to apply certain rules to prevent getting sued for your sent newsletters. If you’re located in the U.S. the CAN-SPAM act applies to all your outgoing mail. In other countries there are similar laws:
- United States – U.S. CAN-SPAM Act
- Canada- C-28 – Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL)
- Australia – Spam Act 2003, Act No. 129 of 2003 as amended.
- EU – Article 13 of DIRECTIVE 2002/58/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 12 July 2002
- United Kingdom (UK) – The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations
- Austria – Telecommunications Act 2003
- Belgium – Etat des lieux en juillet 2003, July 4, 2003
- Cyprus – Section 06 of the Regulation of Electronic Communications and Postal Services Law of 2004 (Law 12 (I) / 2004 deals with unsolicited communications
- Czech Republic – Act No. 480/2004 Coll., on Certain Information Society Services
- Estonia – Information Society Service Act
- France – CNIL Guidelines on email marketing
- Germany – Art. 7 German Unfair Competition Law (Gesetz gegen Unlauteren Wettbewerb) (UWG)
- Italy – Personal Data Protection Code (legislative decree no. 196/2003)
- Netherlands – Article 11.7 of the Dutch Telecommunications Act and Dutch Data Protection Act.
- Sweden – Swedish Marketing Act (Swedish Code of Statutes, SFS 1995:450).