Email Footer Law Lint

Fourteen checks on the part of an HTML email nobody re-reads: the footer.

The body of a campaign gets proofread by four people. The footer is copied from the last template, and the last template was copied from the one before it. That is how a repealed statute, a placeholder address and a 30-day removal promise survive for years and ship on every send.

What it reads

Any .html email template — hand-written, exported from an ESP, or built by a framework. It parses the markup, strips tags and comments, and reads the plain footer text plus every <a> and <img> in it. Nothing leaves the machine.

The fourteen checks

Check	What trips it	Authority
`unsub_missing`	no opt-out link anywhere	15 U.S.C. 7704(a)(3); CASL s.11(1)
`unsub_dead_href`	opt-out `href` is `#`, empty or `javascript:`	15 U.S.C. 7704(a)(3)(A)
`unsub_behind_login`	opt-out lands on `/login`, `/account`, `/dashboard`	16 CFR 316.5
`unsub_fee_or_data`	opt-out asks for an account number, a fee, more data	16 CFR 316.5
`unsub_deadline_too_long`	footer promises longer than 10 business days	15 U.S.C. 7704(a)(4)(A)(ii)
`unsub_window_under_60d`	link declared valid for fewer than 60 days	CASL S.C. 2010 c.23 s.11(1)(b)
`unsub_too_small`	opt-out under 10px, `display:none` or `visibility:hidden`	16 CFR 316.5; CASL s.11(1)
`postal_address_missing`	no street address or registered PO Box	15 U.S.C. 7704(a)(5)(A)(iii)
`postal_address_placeholder`	`[Your Company Address]`, `123 Main St`, `Musterstraße`	15 U.S.C. 7704(a)(5)(A)(iii)
`tmg_5_outdated`	provider line still cites the TMG	DDG 5 — TMG repealed 2024-05-14
`de_imprint_incomplete`	German-facing, no Impressum link, no HRB or USt-IdNr	DDG 5 Abs. 1 Nr. 4 and Nr. 6
`sender_identity_missing`	footer never names the legal entity	7704(a)(5); CASL s.6(2)(a); DDG 5 Abs. 1 Nr. 1
`tracking_pixel_unconsented`	1×1 open pixel with no line on why the reader got this	ePrivacy Art. 5(3); EDPB Guidelines 2/2023
`copyright_year_stale`	footer year older than the date you run it	read against `today`

The one that catches almost everybody

Germany repealed the Telemediengesetz on 2024-05-14. The provider-identification duty moved to § 5 DDG (Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz). Every footer written before that date — and every footer written since by an assistant trained before it — still says § 5 TMG. The check reports the citation, the repeal date, and the date you ran it.

Free and paid

Free, no key, no account: check the template open in your editor against all fourteen rules. Each finding carries the line, the statute and the fix, in the editor's Problems panel and in an output channel. The same engine runs in the browser at the product page, byte for byte, with nothing uploaded.

Paid: sweep every template in the workspace and write one dated audit report file — every file, every finding, every citation, in one Markdown artefact you can hand to a client or to counsel. That is the licensed command. Licence: https://buy.polar.sh/polar_cl_UpcPQkomm2d1N52PaYHHfPjdB89okIRPLaTa70CzAj0

Full workspace sweep and report: free for 7 days from your first sweep, then a licence key.

Yardstick: outside counsel reads one email footer against CAN-SPAM, CASL and § 5 DDG at about $300 an hour, and reads it once.

Commands

Email Footer Law Lint: Check this file — free
Email Footer Law Lint: Sweep workspace and write report (licence)
Email Footer Law Lint: Enter licence key

Notes

Results are advisory and are not legal advice. Rules are read from rules.json; the engine is a single file with no dependencies and no network calls.

Product page: https://getreadystack.com/tools/email-footer-law-lint