Cold Email Compliance Checker

Four regimes, one message

A single campaign into the US, Europe, Canada and Australia is subject to four different sets of rules at once, and they disagree on the fundamental question of whether you needed permission first. The disclosure requirements, though, overlap heavily, and those are the ones you can check before sending: who you are, why they are hearing from you, where you are, and how they make it stop.

Consent is the dividing line

CAN-SPAM does not require permission before you send, which is why US-style cold outreach is legal there. CASL in Canada requires express or implied consent before the message goes out, so an otherwise perfect email can still be non-compliant. GDPR sits between the two: B2B outreach generally relies on legitimate interest, which is available but has to be reasoned and documented rather than assumed.

Disclosure is where most emails actually fail

A missing physical postal address, no working opt-out, or a subject line dressed up as a reply are the failures that show up in enforcement. They are also trivially fixable, and they are what this reads your draft for. One-to-one looking cold email is not exempt from any of it.

Documenting it is part of complying

Under GDPR the obligation is not only to have a lawful basis but to be able to demonstrate it: where the data came from, why that role at that company, and why your interest does not override their privacy. Nothing in the message proves that, which is why it is asked separately here rather than inferred.