Email certification bills itself as a way to ensure email deliverability. The process works by putting you on an email whitelist that allows your email to bypass spam filters. Of course this is all done for a cost to the sender, usually per email certified.

The theory behind email certification is that if a trusted third party is certifying the email, then it is legitimate and not spam.

Why is there a problem?
The basic problem of email certification is that the costs can be extremely high, pricing most small businesses out of the equation as costs can easily run up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a year. That is a lot to pay to get on an email whitelist, especially if you abide by all of the regulations in the CAN-SPAM act already.

Of course, there's no guarantee either. You could pay all that money and still find your emails undelivered.

The use of email certification by some of the top Internet Service Providers such as AOL, AT&T, Comcast, Cox, Road Runner, Verizon and Yahoo has prompted watchdog groups to oppose what they see as an email tax—charging businesses to ensure email deliverability.

Another claim is that spammers who are certified will be able to bypass filters and flood users' mailboxes with junk marketing because they have paid the email certification fee. ISPs like AOL and Yahoo have stated that any emails send to recipients that have not opted in will result in the sender being banned.

Does it mean my email marketing won’t work?
Certified email is not the only way to make sure your email deliverability rates stay where you want them. It is only one way. Small businesses who prefer not to pay large fees can still use email marketing successfully by making sure that their emails all conform to the CAN-SPAM act and by using an email marketing service that already has high email deliverability rates.