How do GDPR and CAN-SPAM differ in enforcement?
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The core difference is whether you need permission to send. GDPR is opt-in: you can't send marketing email to an EU resident without prior explicit consent. CAN-SPAM is opt-out: you can send to anyone as long as you include accurate sender info, a physical address, a non-deceptive subject line, and a working unsubscribe that you honor within 10 business days. That philosophical difference shapes everything else.
Penalties reflect the different philosophies. GDPR fines can reach €20 million or 4% of global annual revenue. Amounts designed to sting even multinationals. CAN-SPAM caps at around $53,088 per email, significant but survivable for large companies. EU data protection authorities actively pursue non-EU companies serving EU residents; the FTC enforces CAN-SPAM more selectively.
GDPR also imposes obligations that CAN-SPAM doesn't: individual rights beyond unsubscribe (access to data, deletion, portability), documentation requirements, data protection officers for many organizations, and breach notification. CAN-SPAM has none of these.
GDPR compliance automatically satisfies CAN-SPAM; the reverse isn't true. For any program with EU recipients, GDPR is the operative standard. Start there, and the rest of your compliance picture becomes clearer.
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