Regulation of Electronic Mail
Texas Commercial Email Law
Marketing
Bans falsified routing, deceptive subject lines, and domain spoofing in commercial email, requires 'ADV:' labeling and a working opt-out for unsolicited commercial email, and bars selling opted-out addresses. H.B. 20 (2021) added a rule against email providers impeding messages.
- Where
- Texas
- Citation
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code ch. 321 (321.001-321.114)
- Status
- In force
- In force since
- 2009-04-01
- Last amended
- 2021-12-02
- Enforced by
- Texas Attorney General or county prosecuting attorney; injured persons
- People can sue
- Yes
- Penalties
- Civil penalty the lesser of $10 per message or $25,000 per day; private actual damages or the same statutory alternative; DTPA violation (321.102-321.106). Federal CAN-SPAM preemption may limit some provisions.
- Applies to
- Senders of commercial electronic mail (321.051-321.053)
- Electronic mail service providers (321.054)
What a privacy notice must say
- Unsolicited commercial email must begin the subject line with 'ADV:' (or 'ADV: ADULT ADVERTISEMENT') and give a free working return address for removal requests.Tex. Bus. & Com. Code 321.052(a)
Practices it requires
- Do not send commercial email with falsified routing information, deceptive subject lines, or another's domain name without consent.Tex. Bus. & Com. Code 321.051(b)
- Remove addresses within three days of a removal request and do not sell or share them.Tex. Bus. & Com. Code 321.052(b), 321.053
Sources
- Official text
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code ch. 321 (Texas Legislature, Texas Constitution and Statutes)
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code ch. 321, statute text file served by the Texas Legislative Council
Checked against these sources on 2026-09-24 by research agent (Claude), primary sources.
Unverified: Whether the ADV: labeling rule survives federal CAN-SPAM preemption (15 U.S.C. 7707(b)) was not analyzed.
Research reference, not legal advice.