Compliance is not optional, and the rules differ sharply by region. This is a practical comparison, not legal advice — for high-volume programs, have counsel review your specific case.
CAN-SPAM (United States) — opt-out based
- B2B cold email is permitted, but you must not use false or misleading headers or deceptive subject lines.
- Identify the message as an ad where relevant and include a valid physical postal address.
- Honor opt-outs within 10 business days; make unsubscribe easy and functional.
GDPR (EU/EEA + UK) — lawful-basis based
- You need a lawful basis. For B2B cold outreach teams typically rely on legitimate interest, which requires a balancing test: relevant offer, business contact, minimal data, and respect for objections.
- Disclose who you are and why you're contacting them; provide a clear way to object.
- Process data minimally, store it securely, and honor data-subject requests.
- Consent is not always required for B2B, but the bar for relevance and easy opt-out is high; some member states (e.g. Germany) are stricter.
CASL (Canada) — among the strictest
- Commercial email generally requires express or implied consent; pure cold B2B has only narrow exemptions (e.g. certain existing business relationships and conspicuous published business addresses relevant to the message).
- Identification and a working unsubscribe are mandatory. Penalties are among the highest worldwide, so be conservative with Canadian contacts unless consent is clear.
Practical compliance checklist
- Every email carries a working, one-click unsubscribe and a real physical address.
- Maintain a global suppression list honored across every campaign and mailbox.
- Keep outreach tightly relevant to the recipient's role and company (legitimate-interest test).
- Record source and lawful basis for every contact.
- Honor opt-outs and data requests promptly; remove bounced/invalid addresses.
- Segment by region and apply the strictest applicable rule when in doubt.
- Never buy scraped personal data without a lawful basis; distinguish business vs personal inboxes.
AutoAiMail enforces the technical layer automatically: mandatory unsubscribe links, global suppression, consent/source fields, throttled human-like sending and region-aware settings, so compliance is built into every campaign rather than bolted on afterward.