15 U.S.C. § 7701 — Congressional findings and policy

Page 2378 TITLE 15—COMMERCE AND TRADE § 7701 (3) Contact lens prescription The term ‘‘contact lens prescription’’ means a prescription, issued in accordance with State and Federal law, that contains sufficient in- formation for the complete and accurate fill- ing of a prescription, including the following: (A) Name of the patient. (B) Date of examination. (C) Issue date and expiration date of pre- scription. (D) Name, postal address, telephone num- ber, and facsimile telephone number of pre- scriber. (E) Power, material or manufacturer or both. (F) Base curve or appropriate designation. (G) Diameter, when appropriate. (H) In the case of a private label contact lens, name of manufacturer, trade name of private label brand, and, if applicable, trade name of equivalent brand name. (Pub. L. 108–164, § 11, Dec. 6, 2003, 117 Stat. 2027.) Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries EFFECTIVE DATE Section effective 60 days after Dec. 6, 2003, see section 12 of Pub. L. 108–164, set out as a note under section 7601 of this title. CHAPTER 103—CONTROLLING THE ASSAULT OF NON-SOLICITED PORNOGRAPHY AND MARKETING Sec. 7701. Congressional findings and policy. 7702. Definitions. 7703. Prohibition against predatory and abusive commercial e-mail. 7704. Other protections for users of commercial electronic mail. 7705. Businesses knowingly promoted by electronic mail with false or misleading transmission information. 7706. Enforcement generally. 7707. Effect on other laws. 7708. Do-Not-E-Mail registry. 7709. Study of effects of commercial electronic mail. 7710. Improving enforcement by providing rewards for information about violations; labeling. 7711. Regulations. 7712. Application to wireless. 7713. Separability. § 7701. Congressional findings and policy (a) Findings The Congress finds the following: (1) Electronic mail has become an extremely important and popular means of communica- tion, relied on by millions of Americans on a daily basis for personal and commercial pur- poses. Its low cost and global reach make it extremely convenient and efficient, and offer unique opportunities for the development and growth of frictionless commerce. (2) The convenience and efficiency of elec- tronic mail are threatened by the extremely rapid growth in the volume of unsolicited commercial electronic mail. Unsolicited com- mercial electronic mail is currently estimated to account for over half of all electronic mail traffic, up from an estimated 7 percent in 2001, and the volume continues to rise. Most of these messages are fraudulent or deceptive in one or more respects. (3) The receipt of unsolicited commercial electronic mail may result in costs to recipi- ents who cannot refuse to accept such mail and who incur costs for the storage of such mail, or for the time spent accessing, review- ing, and discarding such mail, or for both. (4) The receipt of a large number of un- wanted messages also decreases the conven- ience of electronic mail and creates a risk that wanted electronic mail messages, both com- mercial and noncommercial, will be lost, over- looked, or discarded amidst the larger volume of unwanted messages, thus reducing the reli- ability and usefulness of electronic mail to the recipient. (5) Some commercial electronic mail con- tains material that many recipients may con- sider vulgar or pornographic in nature. (6) The growth in unsolicited commercial electronic mail imposes significant monetary costs on providers of Internet access services, businesses, and educational and nonprofit in- stitutions that carry and receive such mail, as there is a finite volume of mail that such pro- viders, businesses, and institutions can handle without further investment in infrastructure. (7) Many senders of unsolicited commercial electronic mail purposefully disguise the source of such mail. (8) Many senders of unsolicited commercial electronic mail purposefully include mis- leading information in the messages’ subject lines in order to induce the recipients to view the messages. (9) While some senders of commercial elec- tronic mail messages provide simple and reli- able ways for recipients to reject (or ‘‘opt-out’’ of) receipt of commercial electronic mail from such senders in the future, other senders pro- vide no such ‘‘opt-out’’ mechanism, or refuse to honor the requests of recipients not to re- ceive electronic mail from such senders in the future, or both. (10) Many senders of bulk unsolicited com- mercial electronic mail use computer pro- grams to gather large numbers of electronic mail addresses on an automated basis from Internet websites or online services where users must post their addresses in order to make full use of the website or service. (11) Many States have enacted legislation in- tended to regulate or reduce unsolicited com- mercial electronic mail, but these statutes im- pose different standards and requirements. As a result, they do not appear to have been suc- cessful in addressing the problems associated with unsolicited commercial electronic mail, in part because, since an electronic mail ad- dress does not specify a geographic location, it can be extremely difficult for law-abiding businesses to know with which of these dis- parate statutes they are required to comply. (12) The problems associated with the rapid growth and abuse of unsolicited commercial electronic mail cannot be solved by Federal legislation alone. The development and adop- tion of technological approaches and the pur- suit of cooperative efforts with other coun- tries will be necessary as well. Page 2379 TITLE 15—COMMERCE AND TRADE § 7702 (b) Congressional determination of public policy On the basis of the findings in subsection (a), the Congress determines that— (1) there is a substantial government inter- est in regulation of commercial electronic mail on a nationwide basis; (2) senders of commercial electronic mail should not mislead recipients as to the source or content of such mail; and (3) recipients of commercial electronic mail have a right to decline to receive additional commercial electronic mail from the same source. (Pub. L. 108–187, § 2, Dec. 16, 2003, 117 Stat. 2699.) Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries EFFECTIVE DATE Pub. L. 108–187, § 16, Dec. 16, 2003, 117 Stat. 2719, pro- vided that: ‘‘The provisions of this Act [see Short Title note below], other than section 9 [enacting section 7708 of this title], shall take effect on January 1, 2004.’’ SHORT TITLE Pub. L. 108–187, § 1, Dec. 16, 2003, 117 Stat. 2699, pro- vided that: ‘‘This Act [enacting this chapter and sec- tion 1037 of Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure, amending section 227 of Title 47, Telecommunications, and enacting provisions listed in a table relating to sentencing guidelines set out as a note under section 994 of Title 28, Judiciary and Judicial Procedure] may be cited as the ‘Controlling the Assault of Non-Solic- ited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003’, or the ‘CAN-SPAM Act of 2003’.’’ § 7702. Definitions In this chapter: (1) Affirmative consent The term ‘‘affirmative consent’’, when used with respect to a commercial electronic mail message, means that— (A) the recipient expressly consented to re- ceive the message, either in response to a clear and conspicuous request for such con- sent or at the recipient’s own initiative; and (B) if the message is from a party other than the party to which the recipient com- municated such consent, the recipient was given clear and conspicuous notice at the time the consent was communicated that the recipient’s electronic mail address could be transferred to such other party for the purpose of initiating commercial electronic mail messages. (2) Commercial electronic mail message (A) In general The term ‘‘commercial electronic mail message’’ means any electronic mail mes- sage the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service (including content on an Internet website operated for a commercial purpose). (B) Transactional or relationship messages The term ‘‘commercial electronic mail message’’ does not include a transactional or relationship message. (C) Regulations regarding primary purpose Not later than 12 months after December 16, 2003, the Commission shall issue regula- tions pursuant to section 7711 of this title defining the relevant criteria to facilitate the determination of the primary purpose of an electronic mail message. (D) Reference to company or website The inclusion of a reference to a commer- cial entity or a link to the website of a com- mercial entity in an electronic mail message does not, by itself, cause such message to be treated as a commercial electronic mail message for purposes of this chapter if the contents or circumstances of the message in- dicate a primary purpose other than com- mercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service. (3) Commission The term ‘‘Commission’’ means the Federal Trade Commission. (4) Domain name The term ‘‘domain name’’ means any alpha- numeric designation which is registered with or assigned by any domain name registrar, do- main name registry, or other domain name registration authority as part of an electronic address on the Internet. (5) Electronic mail address The term ‘‘electronic mail address’’ means a destination, commonly expressed as a string of characters, consisting of a unique user name or mailbox (commonly referred to as the ‘‘local part’’) and a reference to an Internet domain (commonly referred to as the ‘‘domain part’’), whether or not displayed, to which an electronic mail message can be sent or deliv- ered. (6) Electronic mail message The term ‘‘electronic mail message’’ means a message sent to a unique electronic mail ad- dress. (7) FTC Act The term ‘‘FTC Act’’ means the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.). (8) Header information The term ‘‘header information’’ means the source, destination, and routing information attached to an electronic mail message, in- cluding the originating domain name and orig- inating electronic mail address, and any other information that appears in the line identi- fying, or purporting to identify, a person initi- ating the message. (9) Initiate The term ‘‘initiate’’, when used with respect to a commercial electronic mail message, means to originate or transmit such message or to procure the origination or transmission of such message, but shall not include actions that constitute routine conveyance of such message. For purposes of this paragraph, more than one person may be considered to have initiated a message. (10) Internet The term ‘‘Internet’’ has the meaning given that term in the Internet Tax Freedom Act (47 U.S.C. 151 nt).