Cold email and the rules.

The general principle, and its limits

Writing to a business address about the recipient's professional activity falls under a lighter regime than marketing to private individuals in a number of European countries. The underlying idea is that the message reaches a person acting in their role, on a subject that concerns them in that capacity.

That leniency is not uniform. Some member states require prior consent even between businesses, and the penalties for getting it wrong are real. Before any campaign, check the rules of the country where your prospects are, not the ones you are used to.

• Identify the sender

  Name, company, a real contact route. No masked sender, no reply address that does not exist.

• State the commercial purpose

  The reader must understand on reading that this is a business approach.

• Allow objection

  A simple, free way to stop being contacted, honoured immediately and permanently.

The rights that apply regardless

The person can ask what data you hold on them, have it corrected or erased, and object to its use for marketing. These requests have deadlines, and failing to answer is itself a breach.

You must also be able to say where the data came from. Check this before buying any list: if the provider cannot document the source and legal basis, the problem becomes yours at the first complaint.

Generic addresses

Addresses such as info@ or contact@ do not identify a person and are treated differently from named ones. They remain subject to the identification and objection obligations.

In practice they have a lower reply rate but stay useful for small businesses, where they often land directly with the owner.