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Legal framework

What the law allows, country by country.

B2B prospecting does not follow the same rules everywhere. And because everything runs through our infrastructure — we find the company, we write the message, we send it —, the responsibility for every send is ours, not yours. We take it on because we are the only ones in a position to hold it. Here is our reading, country by country — including the countries where we do not send, because that is what makes the countries where we do credible.

The three questions that decide a send

1. The recipient’s country — opt-out regime, mixed regime, or prior consent (opt-in).
2. The recipient’s status — a company is not protected like a natural person; a freelancer or sole trader is often treated as an individual.
3. The nature of the contact point — an impersonal inbox (contact@, generic form) is not a named address.

We prospect

Finland — Opt-out

The most workable regime in Europe: the law is channel-neutral. Any request to stop applies across all our clients.

Act on Electronic Communications Services 917/2014, § 202

France — Framed opt-out

Prior consent only covers natural persons: prospecting a company through an impersonal contact point falls under the right to object. Sole traders are handled separately.

Art. L.34-5 CPCE; CNIL doctrine on generic addresses

Sweden — Opt-out

Open towards companies (AB); sole proprietorships (enskilda firmor) are protected as individuals and excluded from our targeting. The law requires an objection address in every message: a precondition for any Swedish campaign.

Marknadsföringslagen, § 19 and § 20

We prospect, under strict conditions

United Kingdom — Mixed

Open towards registered companies. Sole traders are individuals under the law: when status is in doubt, we treat the recipient as an individual — the regulator’s (ICO) position.

PECR, regulations 22 and 23

Ireland — Mixed

An objection regime towards businesses — but every non-compliant message is a distinct criminal offence. We apply the strictest reading of the text.

S.I. 336/2011, regulation 13

Belgium — Mixed

The B2B derogation requires two cumulative conditions: a legal person AND an impersonal contact point. The burden of proof sits with the sender — we only rely on it when both conditions are established.

Art. XII.13 Code of Economic Law; Royal Decree of 4 April 2003, art. 1, 2°

Portugal — Opt-out towards companies

Consent is waived when the recipient is a legal person, under the same strict conditions as in the UK and Belgium: the DGC objection list is checked before sending, sole traders and regulated professions are excluded, and the message is announced as advertising upfront.

Law 41/2004, art. 13.º-A(2)

We do not send without documented consent

Netherlands — De facto consent

The B2B exception assumes the company has declared it wishes to receive marketing — a condition the regulator, decision in hand, found met on none of the 50 company websites it checked. We consider it unusable as it stands.

Art. 11.7, lid 3a, Telecommunicatiewet; Companeo decision (€100,000)

Germany — Prior consent

No B2B exception, even on first contact, and an appellate court has already ruled that an address published on a website is not consent. We do not prospect in Germany without documented consent.

§ 7 Abs. 2 Nr. 2 UWG; OLG Hamm, 18 U 154/22

Austria — Prior consent

Prior consent, applicable to foreign senders as soon as the message reaches an Austrian connection. We do not prospect in Austria without documented consent.

§ 174 TKG 2021; RTR objection list

Denmark — Prior consent

The only country where our exact channel has been ruled on — unfavourably: the Consumer Ombudsman held that a message submitted through a contact form is electronic mail. We do not prospect in Denmark without documented consent.

Markedsføringsloven, § 10; Forbrugerombudsmanden, case 16/11352 (14/11/2016)

Italy — Prior consent

The law defines the protected recipient as expressly including legal persons, and the public opt-out register only covers phone and postal mail: no compliance path exists for electronic messages. We do not prospect in Italy without documented consent.

Privacy Code, art. 130 and art. 121(1-bis)(f)

Spain — Prior consent

No unsolicited commercial electronic communication: the protected recipient is 'any natural or legal person, whether or not acting in a professional capacity' — closing both B2B loopholes in turn. We do not prospect in Spain without documented consent.

Ley 34/2002 (LSSI), art. 21 and annex

Four decisions that guide our reading

• Denmark, 2016: the Consumer Ombudsman ruled that a message submitted through a contact form is electronic mail under the law. It is the only known decision on our exact channel — we draw the consequences wherever the regime is comparable.
• Germany: an appellate court (OLG Hamm) ruled that an address published on a website is not consent to receive marketing.
• Netherlands: the regulator checked 50 company websites to test the B2B exception — none met the condition. €100,000 fine.
• Spain: as early as 2009, the courts ruled that automatically harvesting addresses published on websites does not waive consent — a contact detail being public does not open it to prospecting (Audiencia Nacional, 9 January 2009).

What this page is — and is not

• Outside Denmark, no court has ruled on the “contact form” channel: our reading proceeds by analogy with electronic mail. It is the prudent reading, not a certainty.
• Whatever the country: we identify ourselves, we state where the data comes from, and any request to stop applies across all our clients — not just the one we were writing for.
• Legal risk does not disappear when it is ignored: it changes hands. With a tool that is merely a pipe, the client carries it, often without knowing. Here, we carry it — and every send is framed before it goes out.

Other countries are under legal review and will join this page once our reading is established.

This page describes our own practice and our reading of the texts. It is not legal advice: every campaign is scoped individually, country by country, before anything is sent.

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