Cold Email Laws by Country: UAE, UK and US Side by Side

What is cold email, and is it legal?

Practice. We use cold email to mean a commercial email to someone you have no relationship with, asking for a business conversation. Whether it is lawful depends on the recipient's location and, in the UK, on what kind of subscriber they are. There is no single global rule, and the loudest advice online comes from tool vendors who sell the sending.

What do the UAE rules say about cold email?

Rule. The TDRA policy defines spam as marketing electronic communications sent without the recipient's consent, and says consent is obtained through an opt-in procedure unless an annex says otherwise. It applies to communications with a UAE link, wherever they are sent from, and a recipient physically in the UAE gives a message that link. The PDPL separately prohibits processing personal data without consent, with ten listed exceptions plus any the executive regulations add. Legitimate interest is not among the ten. Two scope notes: Article 2(2) leaves out companies in free zones that are subject to their own data protection legislation, and we did not check whether any executive regulations have added cases.

Practice. The TDRA policy binds licensees, the telecom operators, and states no fines of its own. We read it as the standard that operators, mail providers and the regulator would apply to your list. The PDPL binds the business that holds the data. A named person's work address identifies a natural person, so we treat it as personal data. On that reading, a cold email to a named person in the UAE without a consent basis is the high-risk case. A role address such as info@ is less clear, and the policy still covers it. Our detailed reading is in is buying an email list legal.

What do the UK rules say about cold email?

Rule. Regulation 22 of PECR covers unsolicited marketing email to individual subscribers: you need their prior agreement, unless you got their details while selling them something, you market only similar products and you offered a simple free opt-out then and in every message. Regulation 2 defines corporate subscribers as bodies corporate and certain other entities, including partnerships in Scotland. The page does not define an individual subscriber or say where sole traders sit.

Practice. That is why UK B2B cold email to a limited company's address is treated differently from email to a sole trader's. The personal data rules can still apply to a named employee. Our post on UK cold email: PECR, UK GDPR, company versus sole trader goes through both layers.

What do the US rules say about cold email?

Rule. The FTC's guide describes CAN-SPAM as an opt-out law with no prior consent. It asks for accurate header information, a subject line that reflects the content, a clear statement that the message is an ad, your valid physical postal address, and a working opt-out honoured within 10 business days. It says both the company whose product is promoted and the company that sends the message can be held responsible, and that you cannot contract that away. Our guide to CAN-SPAM for cold email lists the rules and the common mistakes.

What should you do with a list in several countries?

Practice. Build your process to the strictest rule you reach, and loosen it only for a country where you have taken advice. In order:

1. Know where each recipient is, and whether the address is a named person, a role address or a company.
2. Hold a consent basis you can show for anyone in the UAE and any UK individual. For a UK sole trader, use the soft opt-in only if all three of its conditions are true. See double versus single opt-in for what a record contains.
3. Put your real name and address in every email, state that it is an ad where required, and keep the subject honest.
4. Make unsubscribing one step and apply it at once across every list and sender. Our post on unsubscribe law and suppression lists shows how.
5. Do not buy the list. A seller's consent does not pass to you.
6. Set up your domain and your sending habits before the first send: DMARC, bulk sender rules and emails per day per inbox.

Does MAJ Leads send cold email?

Not yet. Cold email is coming soon. The plan is to send slowly from your own inboxes after a warm-up, with a daily cap per inbox and an unsubscribe line on every email, and never to email again anyone who asks to stop. Until it ships, do not plan around it. What is live today for email is newsletters to your own leads. This page is the law, whichever tool you use to send.

See how it works and pricing.