Consent, suppression and staying out of spam folders — legally

Consent rules and deliverability rules are often treated as separate headaches. They're not — doing right by the recipient is also what keeps you in the inbox. This is general information, not legal advice; check your obligations for your market.

Get consent you can point to

Whether you rely on explicit opt-in or a legitimate-interest basis, you should be able to show when and how someone joined a list. A timestamped, source-tagged subscription record is worth more than a promise.

Double opt-in when it counts

For cold-ish or high-risk lists, a confirmation click proves intent and scrubs typos and traps in one step. It costs you a few sign-ups and saves your reputation.

Suppression is sacred

An unsubscribe or complaint should suppress the address everywhere, permanently, and re-adding it should be a no-op. Honouring that isn't just the law — a mailed complaint is a direct hit on your sender reputation.

Preference centres beat all-or-nothing

Letting people choose less mail keeps them subscribed instead of gone. A one-click global unsubscribe should still exist — but give them the gentler option first.

See lists, consent and suppression in Solstral →