How to Stop Getting Emails from a Company: Your CAN-SPAM Rights

To stop getting emails from a company, scroll to the bottom of any message it has sent you and click the unsubscribe link. Federal law requires every commercial email to include one, and the company has 10 business days to stop sending you marketing messages after you use it.¹ That rule comes from the CAN-SPAM Act, which sets the ground rules for how companies handle promotional email and what they must do when you want out.²

Find the Unsubscribe Link and Use It

The link almost always sits at the bottom of the email, near the mailing address and legal fine print. Federal law says it has to be “clear and conspicuous” and easy for an ordinary person to recognize and understand.² In practice, companies often use small gray text that meets the letter of the rule without inviting attention. Look for the words “unsubscribe,” “opt out,” or “manage preferences.”

Clicking usually takes you to a page where you confirm the choice. Some companies show a menu of email categories or a slider to reduce frequency. If you want everything to stop, look for “unsubscribe from all” or a similar option. The law requires that choice to be available even when the company offers preference settings.²

What Has to Happen Within 10 Business Days

Once you submit the request, the company has 10 business days to stop sending you commercial email. The deadline comes straight from 15 U.S.C. § 7704(a)(4), which makes it unlawful to send a marketing email more than 10 business days after receiving your opt-out.¹ A stray message during the window is normal while the request filters through the company’s systems. After the window closes, each additional marketing email is a separate federal violation.

You may receive a final confirmation acknowledging the removal. That’s expected. Note the date you unsubscribed. If the emails don’t stop, that date becomes your reference point.

What a Company Cannot Require of You

Under CAN-SPAM, the process to opt out has to stay simple. A company cannot charge a fee, demand personal information beyond your email address, or push you through multiple web pages to get out of the list.² The legal standard limits the mechanism to either replying to the email or visiting a single webpage. Any process that makes you log in, complete a survey, or click through several screens violates federal law.

The unsubscribe mechanism also has to keep working for at least 30 days after the email was sent.² A company cannot claim the link expired two weeks in.

When Marketing Stops but Other Emails Keep Coming

You may unsubscribe and still see messages from the same company. Before assuming they ignored you, check what type of email it is. CAN-SPAM applies to commercial messages, not transactional ones, and only commercial messages are covered by the opt-out rules.²

Transactional messages relate to something you already agreed to or an account you already have. Common examples:

Order confirmations and shipping updates
Password resets, login notifications, and account security alerts
Billing statements, payment confirmations, and subscription renewals
Product safety notices, recalls, and warranty updates
Changes to the terms of a membership, subscription, or loan you hold

These are exempt from the unsubscribe requirement.² A company can legally continue sending receipts and security alerts after you opt out of marketing. The only way to stop transactional emails entirely is to close the underlying account.

Some companies blur the line by inserting promotional content into what looks like a transactional message. When that happens, the FTC looks at whether a reasonable person reading the subject line would conclude the primary purpose is advertising. If so, the whole email is treated as commercial and has to follow the opt-out rules.²

Don’t Click Unsubscribe on Emails from Senders You Don’t Recognize

Not every unsubscribe link is safe. If an email arrived from a company you never signed up with, the opt-out link may be a trap. Scammers use fake unsubscribe pages to steal login credentials, install malware, or simply confirm that your address is active so they can send more spam.

A real unsubscribe link never asks for a password to another service. Before clicking, hover over the link and check whether the URL points to a domain you recognize. If the email came from a retailer you’ve bought from, the link should go to that company’s actual domain or a known email marketing platform. If the domain looks unfamiliar, don’t click. Mark the message as spam through your email provider’s reporting tool instead. Save the unsubscribe route for companies you actually signed up with.

When the Unsubscribe Link Is Broken or Missing

Sometimes the page errors out, the link is missing, or the form submits and nothing changes. You have a fallback. CAN-SPAM lets companies use either a reply address or a webpage for opt-outs.² If the webpage is broken, reply to the email with a clear request to be removed from the mailing list.

Every commercial email is also required to include the sender’s valid physical mailing address.² If a reply doesn’t work, send a written request to that address or use the company’s customer support channel. Include the email address you want removed and a short statement that you’re opting out of all marketing. That creates a documented record if you need to file a complaint later. Once the request reaches the company through any channel, the same 10 business day deadline applies.¹

Reporting a Company That Won’t Stop

If the 10 business days have passed and marketing emails keep arriving, report the company to the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.³ The older spam@uce.gov address that appears in many older guides has been retired.

Also use your email provider’s “Report Spam” or “Junk” button on the offending messages. That trains your inbox filters and signals to the provider that the sender may be violating anti-spam rules. When enough users report a sender, providers can throttle or block that sender’s messages across their platform. For a company that depends on email marketing, losing deliverability to Gmail or Outlook is a serious hit.

Each email sent after the deadline is a separate violation, and penalties can reach $53,088 per message.² State attorneys general can also bring enforcement actions on behalf of their residents.⁴

You Cannot Sue the Company Yourself Under CAN-SPAM

This part surprises most people. The CAN-SPAM Act does not give individual consumers the right to sue. Enforcement is limited to the FTC, state attorneys general, and internet access providers directly harmed by the spam.⁴ If a company ignores your opt-out, you can report it and it may face substantial penalties, but you personally cannot file a federal lawsuit under this statute to collect damages.

Some states have their own anti-spam laws with different enforcement provisions, and those laws are not fully preempted by CAN-SPAM. As a practical matter, though, your most effective tools are the FTC complaint, your email provider’s spam reporting, and blocking the sender. A single report can feel like dropping a note into a void, but the FTC uses complaint volume to identify patterns. A company generating hundreds of complaints is far more likely to face an investigation than one generating a handful.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 7704 – Other Protections for Users of Commercial Electronic Mail
2
Federal Trade Commission. CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business
3
Federal Trade Commission. ReportFraud.ftc.gov
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 7706 – Enforcement Generally