Email Subject Line Litigation: Washington’s CEMA Isn’t The Only Game In Town

If you send marketing emails, you’re probably already aware of Washington’s Commercial Electronic Mail Act (“CEMA”). Since the Washington Supreme Court’s decision last year in Brown v. Old Navy LLC, plaintiffs’ firms have filed nearly 100 class actions under CEMA, all based on the same theory: the subject line of a marketing email was “false or misleading” because it promised a discount or a free gift, or promoted time-limited offers. At $500 per email in statutory damages, the exposure adds up fast. 

But if you thought Washington’s CEMA was the only law of its kind, think again. A recent amendment to CEMA is reducing statutory penalties to $100 per email and adding a requirement that the sender knew the email was false or misleading (effective June 11, 2026). That makes other states’ CEMA-style laws much more attractive. At the top of the list: Indiana’s.