Is B2B cold email legal? GDPR, CNIL and PECR explained
Cold B2B email is allowed in the UK and France under conditions. The rules from GDPR, the CNIL and PECR in plain English, with a compliance checklist.
By Data Horizon Consulting2 min readLire en français
Short answer: yes. In both the UK and the EU, business-to-business prospecting by email is generally allowed without prior consent, as long as you respect a few conditions. Here is what they are.
The legal basis: legitimate interest
Under the GDPR (and the UK GDPR), most B2B outreach relies on legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f)): you have a genuine business reason to contact the person, the processing is necessary for it, and it does not override their rights. Document this reasoning in a short legitimate interests assessment before you start.
France: the CNIL’s conditions
The CNIL accepts email prospecting of professionals without prior consent when the message relates to the person’s job (offering an accounting tool to a finance director, not home insurance), when the person was informed that their data may be used and can object easily. Generic addresses such as contact@ or info@ belong to the company rather than a person.
UK: PECR and corporate subscribers
In the UK, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) set the rules for marketing emails. The strict consent rule applies to individual subscribers; emails to corporate subscribers (companies, LLPs) can be sent without consent, but you must identify yourself and offer a way to opt out. The ICO’s guidance explains the details.
Be careful with sole traders and some partnerships: they are treated as individuals, so the stricter rules apply. And the UK GDPR still applies whenever you process a named person’s data.
Compliance checklist
- Target business contacts only, and make every message relevant to the recipient’s role.
- Write and file a legitimate interests assessment before the first send.
- Say who you are and where you got the contact’s data.
- Include a free, one-click way to opt out in every email.
- Honour objections immediately and keep a suppression list.
- Avoid bought lists of unknown origin: you must be able to show where the data comes from.
Compliant and effective
The rules and good results point in the same direction: fewer, more relevant messages to well-chosen contacts. That is exactly how we run outsourced B2B prospecting for our clients.