Unsolicited advertising by electronic means (commercial e-mail)
Tenn. Commercial Email Law
Marketing
The official source for this law changed after it was last checked. It is being re-checked.
Requires senders of unsolicited advertising e-mail to provide a toll-free number or return e-mail address for opting out, to honor opt-outs, and to begin the subject line with "ADV:" ("ADV: ADLT" for adult material). It also bans distributing software built to falsify e-mail routing information. The statute says it becomes inoperative when federal law regulates unsolicited commercial e-mail, which raises a real question about its current force after CAN-SPAM (2003).
- Where
- Tennessee
- Citation
- Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 47-18-2501, 47-18-2502
- Status
- In force
- Enforced by
- Injured recipients and e-mail service providers (private civil action)
- People can sue
- Yes
- Penalties
- Injured persons may recover damages and costs; for unsolicited bulk e-mail, recipients may instead elect the lesser of $10 per message or $5,000 per day, and e-mail service providers the greater of those amounts, plus attorney fees. Much of the section is likely preempted by the federal CAN-SPAM Act, and subsection (j) makes it inoperative once federal law regulates unsolicited commercial e-mail.
- Applies to
- Persons and entities conducting business in Tennessee that send unsolicited advertising e-mail
- Unsolicited bulk e-mail delivered to Tennessee residents through e-mail service provider equipment located in Tennessee
- Sellers and distributors of software designed to falsify e-mail routing information
What a privacy notice must say
- Begin the subject line of unsolicited advertising e-mail with "ADV:", or "ADV: ADLT" for adult-only material.Tenn. Code Ann. § 47-18-2501(d)
Practices it requires
- Provide a toll-free number or valid return e-mail address that recipients can use to opt out of further unsolicited advertising e-mail.Tenn. Code Ann. § 47-18-2501(a), (c)
- Stop sending unsolicited e-mail to a recipient who has asked not to receive more.Tenn. Code Ann. § 47-18-2501(b)
- Do not sell or distribute software designed to falsify e-mail transmission or routing information.Tenn. Code Ann. § 47-18-2501(f)
Sources
Checked against these sources on 2026-09-25 by research agent (Claude), primary sources.
Unverified: No primary source fetched (enacted 1999 ch. 475, amended 2003 ch. 15; not fetched). Whether subsection (j) has rendered the section inoperative after the federal CAN-SPAM Act has not been confirmed by a Tennessee court or official source.
Research reference, not legal advice.