Who is the Certified Senders Alliance (CSA)?

The Certified Senders Alliance (CSA) is a service from eco – Association of the Internet Industry in cooperation with the German Dialogmarketing Association (Deutscher Dialogmarketing Verband – DDV) and was created in 2004. With more than 1000 members, eco is the largest Internet industry association in Europe. The DDV is the largest national consortium of dialog marketers in Europe.

The CSA acts as a neutral interface between mailbox providers and senders of commercial emails.

What is the goal of the CSA?

The goal of the CSA is to increase the quality of commercial emails (e.g. newsletters, invoices, order confirmations, etc.). To achieve this goal, the CSA establishes legal and technical quality standards. The quality standards arise out of prevailing law and the technical requirements for mailbox providers. They are regularly updated to correspond to the current legislation and market requirements.

How does the CSA increase the quality of commercial emails?

The established quality standards are adopted in conjunction with a certification. Certified senders obligate themselves to maintain high standards. This removes some of the burden from the email-security team at the participating mailbox provider. In return, the certified senders receive a range of benefits.

What are the benefits of a CSA certification for a sender?

• Improvement of the email deliverability to participating mailbox providers
• Protection of reputation by identifying vulnerabilities with CSA data:
  • Spam Trap Hits
  • DKIM Errors
  • Spam Complaint Rate
  • User Complaints
• Support for technical problems and in the communication with participating mailbox providers
• Protection against legal and financial risks by fully complying with legal standards
• CSA trusted seal shows professionalism in email marketing
• Access to current technical and legal developments in the industry through publications and events

How does the CSA Certified IP List work?

Mailbox providers want to achieve the highest possible level of user satisfaction, but they face a challenge: They need to protect their users from unwanted emails and at the same time guarantee that wanted emails are delivered. To protect their users from spam, mailbox providers set their filters to be very restrictive. However, this can lead to wanted messages being filtered out and erroneously classified as spam, and therefore not being delivered to the receiver.

Given that the IP addresses of CSA certified senders are on the CSA Certified IP List and mailbox providers can access this Certified IP List, CSA senders are recognized as serious email senders. As a result, their messages will be delivered more effectively by the participating mailbox providers .

The certification process

The CSA quality standards cover legal and technical admission criteria. Email senders that are capable of fulfilling these quality criteria can be certified by the CSA.