• April 12, 2004

The Federal Trade Commission has extended the deadline, which was to have been yesterday, April 12, for consumers and organizations to submit comments on regulations regarding unsolicited commercial e-mail - spam - to be issued under the recently-enacted CAN-SPAM Act, after receiving requests for an extension from several trade associations.

The FTC received a request for an extension on April 1 from five organizations, citing the religious holidays and a need for more time to consult on the law's issues. The organizations included: the Direct Marketing Association, the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of National Advertisers, the Consumer Bankers Association, and the Magazine Publishers of America. The Commission voted 5-0 in favor of extending the deadline, which will now be April 20.

The Commission had published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on March 11 seeking comment on the mandatory "primary purpose" rulemaking, which aims to clarify how the Act defines "commercial electronic mail messaging" and therefore how it applies to specific electronic messages. The March 11 notice set a separate deadline of March 31, 2004, to submit comments regarding the Do Not E-Mail Registry Report. The FTC did not receive any formal request to extend that comment period, which is now closed. Comments can be filed electronically through the federal government's centralized rulemaking Website, www.regulations.gov.