How Can Florida Email Marketing Laws Protect You?

Florida email marketing laws protect Floridians from deceptive email scams and prohibit Florida businesses from sending such messages.

What Is Email Marketing?

In today’s day and age, almost everyone has an email account. In fact, some consumers have multiple accounts for work, school, and other purposes. Due to the billions of accounts around the world, most businesses rely on email marketing to promote their goods, services, and promotions. Email marketing may include promotions, advertising for new products, important business information, and more.

According to analysis of these emails – the method works. In fact, email marketing works significantly better than social media when it comes to acquiring new customers. McKinsey & Company, a marketing and sales firm, reveals that email is nearly 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined.

Although email marketing is a valuable tool in companies’ arsenals, many consumers claim about annoying email advertisements clogging up their inbox. Luckily for Floridians, there are laws in the state to protect against misleading email communications.

What Is the Florida Electronic Mail Communications Act?

The Florida Electronic Mail Communications Act is a state law aimed at curbing fraudulent, false, or deceptive email messages. Generally, the law prohibits emails which are designed to mislead recipients about the contents of the message – including phishing emails loaded with viruses and other harmful software.

In order to be considered illegal under the Florida Electronic Mail Communications Act, the following must apply to an email:

• The email was sent for commercial or business purposes;
• The email message was unsolicited – meaning that the message was sent by someone the recipient hasn’t entered into a transaction or other business relationship with;
• The email was eight received by a Florida resident or sent from a Florida computer; AND
• One of the following criteria apply:
  • The email’s subject line contains misleading or falsified information;
  • The email contains a false header which obscures the path of the email from the sender, including falsified or missing routing information; OR
  • The email’s body contains false or deceptive information which was included with the intent to cause damage (viruses are one example).

If spammers violate the Florida email marketing law, they may be sued by the state Attorney General, internet service providers, and others for actual damages or statutory damages of $500 per message.
Although the state law can be used to target scammers, the law may also be used against deceptive business practices.

Affected individuals can file a complaint with the Office of the Florida Attorney General. This complaint is entered into the office’s database for investigation and potential enforcement actions, though no response will be sent to the consumer other than a confirmation. However, consumers may also be able to file a lawsuit against the offending companies.

Have Florida Email Marketing Lawsuits Been Filed?

Several class action lawsuits have already been filed against companies under Florida email marketing laws.

Last year, a Florida woman filed a class action lawsuit against World Travel Holdings for alleged violations. According to the plaintiffs, the company sent her numerous marketing emails for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines offers – despite the fact that she had never been on a cruise.

One email allegedly promised her that she could receive up to $1100 to spend aboard a cruise ship along with hundreds of dollars in discounts. However, the offer within the email allegedly revealed that consumers could only spend up to $750 on the ship or receive up to $1000 in cash back.

Another class action lawsuit was filed around the same time against Caribbean Cruise Line Inc., contending that the cruise company sent misleading emails. Allegedly, the email’s subject lines said “You won a cruise to the Bahamas.” Despite this promising subject line, the plaintiff allegedly discovered that he would have to pay port charges, government fees, and fuel charges if he went on the cruise.

Can I File a Marketing Email Lawsuit Under Florida’s Laws?

If you received fraudulent, false, or deceptive email messages in Florida or from a Florida business, you may be eligible to take legal action. Illegal emails must include false or misleading information in the subject line or a false header. An experienced Florida email marketing attorney can help evaluate your case.

The Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. 0:19-cv-62394-WPD in the US District Court, Southern District of Florida. The Email Spam Laws Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. 1:11-cv-02744-MKB-VVP in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.