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#1020032 - 08/14/08 03:12 PM CAN-SPAM Question
ckr Offline
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Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 9
Our marketing department would like to email all of our Internet Banking customer who are not signed up for Online Statement Delivery with a simply message of "Sign up for OSD." The email would also include an image of what an OSD statement looks like. Would this email be subject to CAN-SPAM? Would this email be considered a "commercial" message or a transactional/relationship message under CAN-SPAM?

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eBanking / Technology
#1020903 - 08/15/08 01:21 PM Re: CAN-SPAM Question ckr
Richard Insley Offline
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Richard Insley
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Toano, VA
If OSD is already included as an option under the existing service agreement at no extra cost, C-S views messages that remind customers of this unused benefit as a T/RM, as you said. If OSD is not included in the current service agreement--even if it gets the customer a price break--I'd say your emails are subject to C-S. Finally, if the message is transmitted inside your IB system and does not go through the Internet to your customers' public email address, C-S does not apply at all.
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#1022295 - 08/18/08 07:10 PM Re: CAN-SPAM Question Richard Insley
ckr Offline
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Joined: Apr 2006
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In our situation, the customer must be logged into our internet banking service to sign up for OSD and it is available at no extra cost. However, there is an additional OSD agreement and disclosure, above and beyond our Internet Banking Access Agreement, that they must accept to sign up for OSD. So with that set of facts, would an email promoting OSD be a T/RM or commerical message?

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#1022640 - 08/19/08 12:32 PM Re: CAN-SPAM Question ckr
Richard Insley Offline
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Richard Insley
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 10,179
Toano, VA
To be a T/RM, there must be a previous agreement for provision of the service to which the email message relates. Since your OSD service is not established under the original Internet Banking Access Agreement, then the email messages are covered--even though there is no additional cost for the service being promoted.

Don't forget that messages inside your IB system are totally exempt from C-S because they do not meet the definition of "email."
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#1023040 - 08/19/08 04:27 PM Re: CAN-SPAM Question Richard Insley
ckr Offline
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Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 9
Thanks Richard! I suspected that would be your answer.

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