What does PECR say about business emails?

The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) in the UK create a distinction between corporate and individual subscribers.

Corporate subscribers: Companies, partnerships, government bodies, and other non-individual entities. You can send unsolicited marketing email to corporate subscriber addresses without prior consent. Examples: info@company.co.uk, sales@company.co.uk.

Individual subscribers: Sole traders, individuals, and partnerships (in Scotland). These require consent before receiving marketing email, similar to B2C rules.

The critical question: is the email address clearly corporate (enquiries@business.com) or does it identify an individual (john.smith@business.com)? Named email addresses at businesses are still considered individual subscribers under PECR.

Even where PECR permits unsolicited email, senders must still:

Identify themselves

Provide valid contact details

Offer opt-out mechanisms

Comply with GDPR for any personal data processing

PECR permissions don't override mailbox provider filtering. Legal email can still land in spam.