The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today charged a network of corporations and individuals with violating the CAN-SPAM Act by barraging consumers with e-mails containing sexually explicit content through an affiliate marketing program that pays commissions to third parties who drive traffic to the network’s Web sites.
“The DMA supports the FTC’s continued enforcement efforts using the CAN-SPAM Act,” said Louis Mastria, vice president, communications, The DMA. “This is yet another example of the utility of CAN-SPAM in holding spammers accountable and we continue to believe that law enforcement actions, like the ones taken today, are one the key to ridding spam from our inboxes.”
According to the FTC, the defendants have violated virtually every provision of the CAN-SPAM Act, spamming hundreds of thousands of consumers with sexually explicit e-mails.
Violating the Adult Labeling Rule, the defendants failed to include the "SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT:" warning in the subject line of the e-mails and the sexually explicit material appeared within the initially viewable areas of the e-mail.
Further, the messages were not clearly identified as advertisements and according to the FTC, consumers were unable to stop the unwanted e-mail messages because the defendants did not provide the required “opt-out” notice
