Washington CEMA, the Commercial Electronic Mail Act at RCW 19.190, does double duty for email and SMS marketing. In effect for email since June 11, 1998 and for commercial texts since 2003, it survives CAN-SPAM preemption as a falsity and deception law.
How Washington CEMA Applies to Email and Texts
On email, CEMA prohibits commercial messages sent to Washington residents that misrepresent the sender or point of origin or contain false or misleading information in the subject line. On texting, RCW 19.190.060 prohibits initiating or assisting commercial electronic text messages to Washington residents’ phones without consent, which functions as a state-level opt-in requirement for SMS marketing. Violations are per se violations of Washington’s Consumer Protection Act, enabling both attorney general enforcement and private suits.
The 2026 Amendments
An April 2025 Washington Supreme Court ruling read misleading subject lines broadly and triggered a wave of class actions over tactics like false urgency and fake reply threads. The legislature responded with a 2026 amendment, HB 2274, requiring actual knowledge, or knowledge fairly implied from the circumstances, that a subject line is false or misleading, and reducing statutory damages for email claims from 500 to 100 dollars, effective for suits filed on or after June 11, 2026. Text message violations still carry 500 dollars per message.
Source: Washington State Legislature: RCW 19.190 (HB 2274)
Report a violation: If you believe a business is violating this law, you can file a complaint with the Washington Attorney General Consumer Protection Division.
