International Spam Laws (28 Countries Explained)

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When a company moves onto the global stage, many difficulties arise. Spam laws are one of them.

As an email marketer, it’s in your best interest to bring relevant content to your customers. To earn their trust, the content must also be in a presentable format with a clear message.

However, even if you have the best intentions, some countries can have tricky regulations. If you fail to comply, you could be subject to hefty fines or even criminal penalties.

Therefore, this article aims to help you when drafting your international email marketing strategy.

But first things first.

Why is spam important?
Currently, spam accounts for 56% of all email traffic, according to Statista . Spam can cause many serious problems. Excessive email traffic, unrecoverable labor costs, and server overloads are some of them.

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Spam is particularly dangerous. Due to their perceived anonymity, spam is an effective tool for fraudulent activities. The most common examples are delivering malware and stealing confidential data .

This is why governments impose strict regulations on email. When the laws are drafted, unsolicited commercial activity (advertising spam) or criminal activity (stealing confidential data) often fall under the same statute. Therefore, it is particularly important office 365 database to follow the rules of your country to avoid being severely punished.

Before we get into the meat of this, let’s define some key concepts to make digesting this slightly legal text easier!

Key Concepts in Spam Law
There is one very important thing to remember when sending emails to strangers:

Do they want to receive emails from you?

If so, you've got the green light.

Otherwise, you may be violating their privacy, which is a criminal offense in some countries.

Opt-out and Opt-in Methods
There are two widely used methods to obtain consent from future recipients of your commercial emails.

This opt-out method assumes that consent was given before it was revoked, such as by unsubscribing from a mailing list.

This opt-in method ties consent to a specific action. For example, signing up for a mailing list and agreeing to receive a newsletter. This can happen in two forms: explicit and implicit consent.