Do I need to comply with laws in every country I email?

Yes. Email compliance is generally determined by the recipient's location, not the sender's. When a US company emails a German resident, GDPR applies to that email. When an Australian company emails a Canadian resident, CASL applies. The legal exposure follows the recipient, not your headquarters location.

This creates complex compliance requirements for global email programs. A single campaign sent to an international list might need to comply with GDPR (EU recipients), CASL (Canadian recipients), CAN-SPAM (US recipients), LGPD (Brazilian recipients), and various APAC laws simultaneously. Each recipient is subject to their jurisdiction's rules.

Practical approaches include: adopting the strictest global standard (usually GDPR or CASL) for all recipients, which automatically satisfies less strict jurisdictions; geographic segmentation with jurisdiction-specific compliance rules; or excluding certain regions if compliance burden exceeds business value. Ignoring foreign laws because you're based elsewhere doesn't protect you. It ujust means violations go unnoticed until enforcement action or blocked email makes them visible.