Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

RCW 19.190.020

Unpermitted or misleading electronic mail—Prohibition.

Applied in 12 court decisions — leading case Gordon v. Virtumundo, Inc. (2009)

Most recently applied in Silverstein v. Keynetics Inc. (June 2016)

1999 c 289 s 2; 1998 c 149 s 3.

How often courts cite this section

20012010201630
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

*** CHANGE IN 2026 *** (SEE 2274-S.SL) ***

(1) No person may initiate the transmission, conspire with another to initiate the transmission, or assist the transmission, of a commercial electronic mail message from a computer located in Washington or to an electronic mail address that the sender knows, or has reason to know, is held by a Washington resident that:

(a) Uses a third party's internet domain name without permission of the third party, or otherwise misrepresents or obscures any information in identifying the point of origin or the transmission path of a commercial electronic mail message; or

(b) Contains false or misleading information in the subject line.

(2) For purposes of this section, a person knows that the intended recipient of a commercial electronic mail message is a Washington resident if that information is available, upon request, from the registrant of the internet domain name contained in the recipient's electronic mail address.

Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.