Anti-Spam Policy & Terms of Use

If you're taking the time to read this, you're probably not a spammer. But legitimate email marketers get accused of spamming all the time, and we've had to shut down accounts for accidentally spamming. So let's prevent all that. If you use MailChimp, you must read, understand, and agree to the following terms.

How MailChimp Defines Spam

When you send an email to someone you don't know (such as to the president of a company you'd like to become your client), that's an "unsolicited" email. Sending one unsolicited message to someone is obviously not spam. That's "doing business."

But when you send an unsolicited email to an entire list of people you don't know, that's spam.

Permission Lists Only

You can only use MailChimp to send emails to lists of people that gave you permission to email them. If you send emails to a list, and you get an unusual amount of spam complaints (more than 1 out of 1,000), ISPs will begin blocking future emails from your company. They will also request (that's putting it mildly) that MailChimp shut down your account. So if you don't have proof that each recipient on your list opted-in for your emails, don't import them into MailChimp.

• No purchased lists (no matter how expensive).
• No rented lists (even if they "opted in").
• No 3rd party lists whatsoever.

You should only use MailChimp to send newsletters, updates, and promotions to your own customers, or to people who specifically requested email marketing from you.

Don't have a permission list yet? Maybe your company's too new, and you have no customers. Feel free to setup a MailChimp account, run through the List Setup Wizard, and add a signup form to your website so that you can grow your list.

We're In This Thing Together

We do what we can to keep our system clean, but you agree to pitch in too. Here's how:

• Sending your first campaign to an old list? Many recipients won't remember you, and will report you for spamming. Do everything in your power to remind them of who you are, and how they got on your list (here's an excellent example).
• Clean your customer list before you import. Take out any addresses older than 6 months. Bad addresses lead to bouncebacks. Too many bouncebacks, and ISPs block MailChimp (and you). We'll shut your account down if you import an old list that gets too many bounces.
• Don't just import your entire Outlook Address Book. Export them into a spreadsheet, then take some time to clean out bad addresses (like Sales@Amazon, or Support@Comcast). If you import even one address by mistake, that person can get you blacklisted and shut down (here's a real life example).
• Importing from a CRM? Break it into separate segments or interest groups so you can send relevant content to your customers ("We met at a tradeshow, You bought xyz from us in the past, You are a client of..." etc). Don't just mix a bunch of different lists together and send one "blast" to all of them.
• Sending on behalf of a client? Educate your client about responsible email marketing. They're depending on you to be the expert. Here are some email marketing resources for you.

Unacceptable Content

Don't use MailChimp to send anything offensive, to promote anything illegal, or to harrass anyone.

• In general, don't send anything you'd be ashamed to show your mother.
• No Pornography
• No campaigns selling illegal substances
• No campaigns that violate the FTC's CAN-SPAM Law

Who Can Use MailChimp

1. You must be at least 18 years of age to use MailChimp, and can form legally binding contracts under applicable law.
2. You must complete the registration process and agree to our terms of use in order to use MailChimp. All contact information you submit must be true, complete, and up to date.
3. MailChimp reserves the right to refuse service or to terminate accounts for any user, and to change eligibility requirements at any time, in its sole discretion

Fees, Refunds, Account Suspensions, Etc.

1. We don'’t provide refunds for unused email credits or monthly subscriptions (even/especially if we had to shut down your account for violating these terms).
2. MailChimp reserves the right to (reasonably) change our fees at any time. We will send email notifications to users if and when we do.
3. If a user violates any of the terms outlined above, we reserve the right to cancel accounts, or bar access to accounts, without refund.
4. If, for some reason, we are unable to process your credit card order, we will attempt to contact you by email and we will suspend usage of your account until your payment can be processed.
5. You agree to pay for all emails you send from your account, even if messages are blocked by any third party (we have no control over your recipients' email servers, ISP availability, personal spam filter settings, etc)
6. For pay-as-you-go (prepaid) accounts, your email credits "roll over" and do not expire. However, if you do not log in to your account at least once in the last 12 months, your account (including all campaigns, lists, and other data) may be deleted permanently from our system. No, we're not evil. This policy is more about keeping our database clean and efficient than making you buy email credits.

Indemnification

You Agree To Indemnify And Hold The Rocket Science Group LLC (dba MailChimp), Its Parents, Subsidiaries, Affiliates, Officers, Partners And Employees, Harmless From Any Claim Or Demand, Including Reasonable Attorneys' Fees, Made By Any Third Party Due To Or Arising Out Of Your Use Of The Service, Use Of Your Account By Any Third Party, The Violation Of The Terms Of Use By You, Or The Infringement By You, Or Any Third Party Using Your Account, Of Any Intellectual Property Or Other Right Of Any Person Or Entity.

DISCLAIMER

The Mailchimp Site And Its Contents Are Provided "As Is" And "As Available" Without Any Warranty Or Representations Of Any Kind, Whether Expressed Or Implied. The Rocket Science Group Is A Distributor And Not A Publisher Of The Content Supplied By Third Parties And Users Of The Site; As Such, The Rocket Science Group Exercises No Editorial Control Over Such Content And Makes No Warranty Or Representation As To The Accuracy, Reliability Or Currency Of Any Information, Content, Service Or Merchandise Provided Through Or Accessible Via The Site. Without Limiting The Foregoing, The Rocket Science Group Specifically Disclaims All Warranties And Representations As The Publisher Of Any Content Transmitted On Or In Connection With The Site Or On Sites That May Appear As Links On The Site, Or As The Manufacturer Of The Products Provided As A Part Of, Or Otherwise In Connection With, The Site, Including Without Limitation Any Warranties Of Merchantability, Fitness For A Particular Purpose Or Noninfringement Of Third Party Rights. No Oral Advice Or Written Information Given By The Rocket Science Group Nor Any Of Its Affiliates, Employees, Officers, Directors, Agents, Or The Like Shall Create A Warranty. Price And Availability Information Is Subject To Change Without Notice.

How We Prevent Spam

As an email marketing service provider, we feel it's our duty to be extra vigilant about preventing spam. It's not just bad for the Internet community in general---if spam gets sent from our system, we'd get blocked by all major ISPs, which would make our system useless for the thousands of users who depend on us.

It's in our best interest to keep our system clean, because our reputation and deliverability depends on it. So here's what we do:

No Anonymity.
Spammers use anonymous email accounts to do their work. So you can't create a free trial account using some anonymous @yahoo.com, @hotmail.com, etc. email account. Spammers also hack into personal, at-home email accounts (with viruses). So we don't allow "home" accounts either. We continually add to our database of free/anonymous/personal email address services so that we can block spammers from even entering.

Human Review & Approval
Free trial account users cannot purchase email credits until they've been reviewed and approved by a human at MailChimp. We have a list of 26 criteria that we use to analyze new accounts to determine risk. Criteria range from domain reputation to suspicious account activity. We can tell in the blink of an eye who's a spammer.

Feedback Loops w/ISPs
MailChimp has been delivering emails since 2001, and has established relationships with most major ISPs. They know us. We know them. We're on feedback loops (FBL) and reporting systems with these ISPs and anti-spam organizations:

• AOL
• Comcast
• Earthlink
• Hotmail/MSN
• Roadrunner
• Outblaze
• United Online (Juno/NetZero, etc)
• SpamCop

When a recipient clicks their "this is spam" button in their email program, a FBL report is sent to us. We analyze the data, trace it back to the sender that caused the complaint, remove the complainer from the sender's list, and track future complaints about that campaign. If complaints exceed a reasonable threshold based on list size, we take appropriate action to keep our servers clean and off blacklists.

Reporting Abuse

We take abuse reports seriously at MailChimp. If you've received spam that you think came from a MailChimp user, we want to hear about it. Here's how to get in contact with us:

Report Bad Senders

Every campaign sent from MailChimp has an embedded Campaign Tracking ID (CID) in the email's header that makes it easy for recipients to report suspected spam. Here's how to submit a CID to our abuse desk.

If the campaign you received does not contain a CID, it didn't come from MailChimp. It was probably just spoofed to look like it came from MailChimp (something that inevitably happens to everyone online). Learn more about spoofing.

Learn how to get yourself reported as a spammer...

Contact Info

Toll-free: 1-866-284-2541

MailChimp
512 Means Street, Suite 404
Atlanta, GA 30318
Email Us

Anti-Spam Policy & Terms of Use  |   Privacy Policy  |   About  |   Contact  |   Help  |   Search  |  Site Map

Email Marketing Resources  |   Free HTML Email Templates  |   Partners  |  Find an Expert  |   Add-ons  |   API  |   Blog  |  Demos  |  Surveys  |   Webinars  |   Subscribe to our free Email Marketing Tips Newsletter

New Features:  A/B Split Testing Emails  |   Google Analytics Integration  |   Email Authentication  |   Segmentation

© 2001-2008 MailChimp. All Rights Reserved.  |  Toll-Free: 1-866-284-2541