Gmail and Yahoo to Block Non-Compliant Emails

If your company is delivering more than 5000 emails per day to @gmail.com domains, in June 2024, you’ll find some additional requirements that you must follow to ensure your marketing emails are not getting blocked.  Yahoo has similar requirements but have not provided the number (e.g., 5000/day) of emails that it deems as “bulk.”  Google and Yahoo have had these rules in place for bulk email senders for some time but have never enforced the rules…until now.

There are several changes taking place, and though it’s not necessarily a “compliance concern,” the one change that our readers may be the least happy about is the “one-click unsubscribe” that will need to appear in the header of the email.  Additionally, those opt-outs received from the one-click unsubscribe will need to be honored within 2 days. 

Marketers have long been including an unsubscribe “link” in the footer of the email, which often takes the consumer to a web page where they can update their communication preferences for future emails.  Typically, these web pages offer the choice to “opt-down,” where they are allowed to pick and choose what types of future email communications they would like to receive and are also given the option to opt-out of all future email communications.  CAN-SPAM, the email regulation in the United States, already requires you to offer the global opt-out of all future communications option when giving consumers various other options to opt-down.

Other Enforcement Actions

Additional requirements to be enforced under these existing rules include:

• Authentication – you should ensure that your emails are properly authenticated with Google and Yahoo’s requirements.  Most marketing platforms in use by large marketers today are already compliant with this requirement, but you should confirm with your email service provider.  Work with your IT team to ensure proper authentication settings are in place; and
• Spam Rates – you should ensure your Spam rates do not exceed 0.03%.  Monitor your deliverability score with Gmail to ensure you are meeting this requirement.  Remove email addresses from future campaigns for those that have marked your emails as Spam.

In April 2024, Gmail will begin rejecting a small percentage of emails that do not meet these requirements and will increase the number of rejections over time.

In summary, the one-click unsubscribe in the header is not a legal requirement and senders of marketing emails can continue to offer web links to preference centers and opt-down pages in the footer of the email.  However, marketers will be required to add the global “one click” opt-out in the header that cannot require the consumer to perform any additional steps to unsubscribe.  Both Yahoo and Google will begin enforcing the one-click unsubscribe requirement in June 2024 and will be blocking non-compliant email traffic as they see fit.

You can see the requirements here for Google and Yahoo.

CompliancePoint has the team and services to bring your marketing campaigns into compliance with all applicable regulations, including the TCPA, TSR, Do Not Call lists, CAN-SPAM and all state telemarketing laws. Contact us at connect@compliancepoint.com to learn more about how we can help.