Honest Intros Sign in

Free tool

Cold email legal checker

Pick the recipient's country and who you are writing to, and see whether cold email is allowed, allowed with conditions, or needs consent first.

For example a form they filled in, a reply, or a conversation you can point to.
Your own customers, for products like the ones you sell them now.
On their site, put there by them or their organisation. Not a directory or a bought list.

Checking.

    General information, not legal advice.

    Runs in your browser. Nothing you choose is sent anywhere and nothing is stored.

    How to use it

    1. Pick the country the person you want to email is in. The rules follow the recipient, not you.
    2. Pick who you are writing to. A generic inbox at a company is a company address. If you cannot tell a company from a sole trader, treat it as a sole trader.
    3. Answer the three questions honestly. Read the verdict, then the conditions: each one is something you must do in the email or before you send it.

    Each result names the sources it rests on and links to the guide for that country, which quotes the law.

    What good looks like

    A clear Allowed means no consent is needed and the usual content rules apply: say who you are and give a working way to opt out. Allowed with conditions means you may send only if every listed condition is true for you, and you could prove it if asked. Needs consent first means do not send a cold email at all until they have agreed; the list says what to do instead.

    The rules are the same ones our guides are written from, and each one cites the regulator or the statute. Honest Intros does not make the decision for you: you approve every batch before anything is sent.

    Questions

    Is this legal advice?

    No. It is general information, dated, based on the sources it lists. Laws and guidance change, and your situation may be unusual. For a campaign you are unsure about, ask a lawyer who practises in the recipient's country.

    Which countries does it cover?

    The United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy: the ten countries we have guides for. The rules follow the recipient, so a UK company emailing a German firm follows German rules.

    Is anything I choose sent to you?

    No. The rules download with the page and the check runs in your browser. Nothing is sent to us or stored.

    More free tools: Cold email checker · DMARC checker · Subject line checker · Reply classifier · Gmail warm-up calculator. All of them run in your browser; nothing you type is sent to us.

    See what it would write for you

    Paste your website. Honest Intros learns what you sell and shows who it would write to, and what it would say.

    Free to start. Nothing is sent until you approve it.

    Read next

    • UK: is it a sole trader?Under PECR you may email UK companies and LLPs, but sole traders and some partnerships count as individuals. How to check a business in three minutes, with a decision table.
    • "Where did you get my email?"What GDPR requires when someone asks where you got their email address after a cold email, with three replies you can send and what to do if they object.
    • Italy (Codice privacy art. 130)Italy's Codice privacy article 130 on cold email, quoted in Italian with our translation: consent of the contraente, why companies are covered, the existing-customer exception and what each email must contain.
    • Netherlands (Tw art. 11.7)The Dutch spam ban in Telecommunicatiewet article 11.7, quoted in Dutch with our translation: prior consent, the narrow exception for companies, and what each email must show.