Mass Emailing Policy and Conditions

Procedures for sending mass emails using our email servers

We have a very strict anti-spam policy that is rigorously enforced without exception. However, we recognize that many of our customers have a legitimate need to send mass emails so we have published our mass emailing policy to provide you with the guidelines you need to follow if you want to use our email servers to send mass emails.

Our Mass Email Policy is part of our Service Agreement with you.

1. Our Service Agreement
   This "Mass Emailing Policy" is part of our Service Agreement with you. Our Service Agreement comprises of the following documents:
    
   1. Terms of Service.
   2. Acceptable Use Policy.
   3. Privacy Policy.
   4. Shared Hosting Refund Policy.
   5. Mass Email Policy.
   6. Our "Service Agreement" may be also be referred to as the "Agreement".
       
2. The Sending of Mass Email is only allowed from our Mass Emailing Servers
   Sending Mass Emails from email accounts on our email servers, or any other server belonging to us, other than our Mass Emailing Servers, is strictly prohibited. We use several processes to detect and ban anyone attempting to send mass emails through our email servers.
   
   Anyone attempting to send mass emails from an account on an email server other than our Mass Emailing Servers will have access to these servers terminated without notice.
   
   Mass emails can only be sent from specific accounts that are set-up on our Mass Emailing Servers.
3. The Mass Emailing Service is not Free
   There is a charge to use an account on our mass emailing servers. The charge depends upon how many emails you intend to send each month and the rate at which you want these emails to be delivered.
   
   Our charges for mass emailing accounts are significantly lower than those charged by commercial mass-emailing companies and are designed solely to cover our costs in setting-up, managing, and monitoring these accounts. Our pricing guidelines are available below.
4. Email for the domain must use our email servers
   The domain being used for your mass email account must also use our shared email servers for email. We do not provide mass emailing accounts for domains that do not use our shared email servers for everyday business.
5. We may not provide you with a mass emailing account
   We reserve the right to refuse to set-up a mass emailing account for any customer. We will only set-up the account at our own discretion and if we are satisfied that all the conditions herein have been met and will continue to be met.
6. Conditions for an account on our Mass Emailing Servers
   You must comply with the following conditions before a mass emailing account is set up for you and during the time you maintain that accout with us.
    
   1. SPF Records
      1. You must maintain a full SPF record for the domain being used on the mass email account. The SPF record must include the IP address of the mass emailing server
      2. The SPF record must be complete and finish with the "-all" mechanism
   2. MX Records
      1. Your DNS settings for the domain being used to send mass emails must contain a properly configured MX and A record for our shared email servers
      2. You do not need to create an MX record for the mass emailing server unless you wish to do so. However, an up-to-date SPF record containing the mass email server IP address you are using must be maintained at all times.
   3. Your Mailing List
      1. All members of your mailing list must have signed up to receive emails via a confirmed opt-in system
      2. The confirmed opt-in system must have been operated for the domain being used in your mass emailing account and not from any other source or domain
      3. Your mailing list, or members of your mailing list, must not have been sourced by purchasing a mailing list or by subscribing users by having an opt-in checkbox automatically checked on your website.
      4. When users subscribe for your mailing list, you must tell them what mail to expect, how often to expect it, what "from" address it will be delivered from, and what it will look like. You must also ask them to whitelist the "from" address if possible.
      5. You must record and maintain the date each member of your mailing list originally requested membership of your list and the IP address they were using when they signed up, and the date and IP address used when when they confirmed their membership of your mailing list.
      6. If requested, you must provide details to us of when a member of your mailing list intially signed up for your mailing list and the date that they confirmed their membership of that list. This information must be provided within 24 hours of our request being made.
      7. If you wish to use a confirmed opt-out system to confirm removal requests, the email you send to the recipient must ask the recipient to confirm that they wish to remain a member of the mailing list. If they do not confirm they want to remain a member you must remove the email address from your mailing list. You must not use non-responses to this email as a reason to retain the email address in your mailing list.
      8. Requests for removal, or email addresses that are "bounced", must be permanently removed from your mailing list within 48 hours, and no further emails sent to that email address.
      9. You warrant and accept that you are the data controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998 in respect of any personal data you retain in relation to any recipient you send an email to. You warrant that it is your responsibilty to ensure that consent has been provided to the use of the personal data by the recipient, and that we are not liable or responsible for the accuracy or use of such personal data.
      10. You warrant, represent, and undertake that using our email servers to send email will not infringe or breach any rights of any data subject or be other than in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.
   4. The Emails you Send
      You must ensure that each email you send:
       
      1. must only be sent on behalf of you or your company. You cannot send emails on behalf of a third party.
      2. contains your full contact details including company name, address, postcode, and telephone number. If you are a registered company the emails you send must also include your company number, and if you are VAT Registered it must include your VAT Number. These information requirements must be in a similar font size as the message in your email and be easily seen and read by the recipient.
      3. contains a removal message and either a web page link or email address that allows a member to unsubscribe. The link or email address must be work correctly and cause their email address to be permanently removed within 48 hours. The removal process should be as simple to use as possible and preferably automatic as described in Clause 6.5 below.
      4. must have a "from" and "return" address that matches the authentication username for the email account being used to send your emails.
      5. is lawful both in the UK and the recipients jurisdiction.
         
         In this instance 'lawful' means it does not breach any applicable law, regulation, or code of practice, in force from time to time. Your emails must not include, but is not limited to:
          
         1. civil and criminal offences of copyright or trademark infringement;
         2. the transmission or display of any material that could objectively be described as defamatory, libellous, abusive, indecent, menacing, obscene, or pornographic;
         3. the transmission or display of any material that causes annoyance, inconvenience, or needless anxiety to the recipient or any other person.
         4. the transmission or display of any material that is in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998 dealing with data protection or similar legislation in any other country, or of any material which is confidential or is a trade secret;
         5. the use of the service in any manner which is a violation or infringement of the rights of any individual, firm or company within the United Kingdom, the European Union, or the jurisdiction of the recipient;
         6. the use of the service for purposes generally deemed to be unacceptable, including spamming, hacking, phreaking, password cracking, pirated software, emulators, or IP spoofing or providing "links" or "how to" information to such material; and
         7. using the service to send an email to any recipient to which the recipient has not specifically consented; and
         8. information or content that is misleading or misrepresentation
             
      6. uses an unsubscribe process as described in Clause 6.5 below
   5. Easy Unsubscribe
      You must make the ability to unsubscribe from your list as easy as possible by:
       
      1. providing an obvious and visible unsubscribe process in your mail
      2. ensuring the unsubscribe process is easy to use, such as a one-click unsubscribe web page link within the email
      3. having a process where users should not have to log into a website in order to unsubscribe
      4. using a process that unsubscribes users immediately and permanently where possible
          
   6. Email Accounts.
      1. You must maintain an email account on our shared email servers with the same name as that used by the mass emailing account to send emails
      2. the sender and return email address must be a live email account that accepts incoming emails on our shared email servers
      3. you must monitor the account on the shared email server and the mass emailing server for bounced or non-deliverable emails, or for removal requests, and remove these addresses from your mailing list within 48 hours
      4. The password used for your mass emailing account must contain at least 12 characters and consist of a combination of lower and upper case letters, at least one number, and at least one of the following characters - !"\¬/#@<^&*.>$[]()
   7. Miscellaneous
      1. Limitation of Liability and Indemnity
         We do not accept and shall have no responsibility, or liability, for the email recipients personal data or the content of any emails sent using our emailing server. You agree to indemnify us against all and any damages, claims, expenses, losses and costs that we may incur as a result of any breach of Clauses 6.3.9, 6.3.10, and 6.4.5.
      2. Over Limit Charges
         We will agree a limit to how many emails you can send each month. If you exceed that amount, each email you send over your agreed limit will be charged at 0.5p (£0.005 GBP) per email over the agreed limit subject to a minimum charge of £20 GBP (twenty pounds). By using this service you agree that you will pay your excess email charges immediately.
      3. Charge Offset
         You agree that if you do not pay your invoice for excess emails by return we may, at our own discretion, offset the amount due against any other service we are providing to you at that time, and take appropriate action including the suspension of these other services if the off-set means that you no longer have any credit.
      4. Email Sending Rate
         Emails in your mailing list will be delivered at a maximum rate of 1000 emails per hour. Faster delivery rates can be agreed on an account-by-account basis but there will be an additional charge for faster delivery rates.
      5. Email Archiving
         A copy of all emails sent and received by your mass email account will be stored and archived for a minimum of 90 days for monitoring, billing, and investigation purposes.
      6. Account Responsibility
         You agree that you will be responsible for, and pay for, all emails sent from your account if the correct authentication details (your username and password) have been used to send these emails.
      7. Email Count Accuracy
         The number of emails sent by your account will be counted by the mailing software we use. You agree that you are satisfied with the accuracy of the statistics provided by Smartermail (the email server software) and that you will abide by the mailing statistics it provides.
      8. Maximum Email Size
         The maximum size for each email sent via your mass emailing account is 50KB per email.
   8. Spam Complaints & Anti-Spam Blacklists
      There are a large number of anti-spam blacklists used by email server administrators to assess the likelihood of any emails they receive being spam. If an email server's IP address or IP range becomes listed on one of these lists due to the actions of a user it will cause problems for ALL users of that service. In most cases it will result in a large number of their emails being rejected.
      
      We hope that by following our conditions you will never receive a spam complaint or cause our IP to be listed, but if it does happen, it is necessary to react quickly.
       
      1. We may suspend or terminate your mass emailing account until the matter has been resolved to our satisfaction. No refunds on pre-paid amounts, or any credit, will be provided for the time your account is suspended during an investigation or if your account is terminated following a spam complaint.
      2. You agree that if we receive a spam complaint regarding one of your mass emails sent from our mass email servers, you will assist us immediately by providing the following informaton by return:
          
         1. The date the person making the complaint originally signed-up to your mailing list
         2. The date the person making the complaint confirmed they were opting-in to your mailing list
         3. The IP address they signed up from and the IP address they confirmed their opt-in from
         4. The total number of emails sent to this address from your mailing list
         5. Whether you have a business relationship with the recipient over and above sending them mails from your mailing list, and a brief summary of that relationship
         6. All other details you have regarding the recipient including name, address, postcode and telephone number
             
      3. In the event of a spam complaint, you also agree that you will immediately remove that user from your mailing list once all the necessary information has been provided to us, and before you send any more emails from your mailing list.
      4. You also agree that you will assist us in every way possible to resolve the complaint to everyones satisfaction.
      5. If you fail to provide us with the information we request by return we will terminate your mass emailing account.
      6. You agree to compensate us for the time involved in dealing with the spam complaint at our standard hourly Support Rates as specified in our Terms of Service.
         
         At the time of writing, these rates were:
         
         Mon - Fri (08:00-18:00): £60 per hour in 15-minute increments
         All other times (including Bank Holidays): £90 per hour in 30-minute increments
         
         Our charges for times in these instances may be requested in advance as an estimate of the total time it will take to resolve the matter or as a deposit against future costs, or else will become payable immediately upon receipt of an invoice. We reserve the right to take no action to investigate or resolve the matter beyond suspending your account until payment has been received if we decide to ask for a deposit or other payment in advance.