Certified Senders Alliance

The Certified Senders Alliance is a project of the Association of the German Internet Industry eco eV in cooperation with the German Direct Marketing Association, which commenced commercial operation in 2005.

The project aims to ensure that electronic mail that is sent with the consent of the recipient by reputable mass provider is the customer actually achieved and not already sorted out on provider servers by spam filters.

To this end, a central positive list is created, in which providers can register free of charge. The inclusion criteria must be met to ensure in particular the legality of the offers and unambiguous assignment of the broadcast. A supervisory committee monitors compliance with the guidelines.

From Internet service providers a license agreement can be signed, which governs the use of the positive list. Known providers who have joined the Alliance, are Arcor, Freenet, Host Europe, Germany and cable Pironet and the United Internet companies GMX, 1 & 1 Internet AG and web.de.

20 consignors have been certified by the CSA so far. The certified mailers are emarsys, Teradata eCircle, mailing Work, artegic, Optivo, Responsys, ExactTarget, Selligent, Inxmail, Experian, Evalanche, XQueue, CleverReach, Smart Focus, Promio, Agnitas, kajomi, RapidMail, Silverpop and flat rate newsletter.

The Certified Senders Alliance is the first project of its kind in Europe. So far, internal lists are maintained for this purpose by the providers, in which the provider must register individually.

Criticism

In February 2014, the Agency published publicare a study that examined whether the certified shipper actually meet the criteria. The study concludes that coverage sometimes glaring defects occur despite certificate.