Precleared

Guides

Cold email law in the United States: when an outbound agent may send

Before an agent sends a cold or marketing email to someone in the United States, these are the rules that decide whether it may. Each one is quoted from its legal source and checked on the date shown. Precleared applies them to one address at a time and returns the rule that decided, what the footer must include and a signed receipt.

The rules

Allowed

US law does not require prior consent for commercial email, including business to business. CAN-SPAM governs the content and the opt-out: truthful headers and subject line, identified as an advertisement, a valid physical postal address, a working opt-out honoured within 10 business days, and no exception for business-to-business email.

Footer must include: Truthful From and subject line; make clear it is a commercial message; include your valid physical postal address; give a clear opt-out that works for at least 30 days and honour it within 10 business days. California and Washington add their own rules against misleading subject lines and headers.

Next step: Send. Log the receipt against the lead. Keep the opt-out working.

"The law makes no exception for business-to-business email." Requirements: "Don't use false or misleading header information." "Don't use deceptive subject lines." "Identify the message as an ad." "Tell recipients where you're located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address." "Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future marketing email from you." "Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient's opt-out request within 10 business days." Penalty: "Each separate email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $53,088."

FTC CAN-SPAM Act compliance guide for business

Checked on 3 October 2026

Check one address

curl https://precleared.dev/api/v1/check \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pc_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "recipient_email": "jane@example.com",
    "sender_country": "GB",
    "pitch": "Bookkeeping software for small firms",
    "address_source": "published",
    "recipient_country": "US"
  }'

Over MCP, call contact_check with the same fields at https://precleared.dev/mcp.

Other countries

Decision support with sources, not legal advice.