Can EU email marketing use soft opt-in?

Treat soft opt-in as available only when every Article 13(2) condition is documented before launch. The sender must have obtained the customer's electronic contact details in the context of selling a product or service. The same natural or legal person must send the campaign for its own similar products or services. Article 13(2) does not itself extend the route to prospects, bought or shared lists, affiliates, another group company, third-party offers, or unrelated products.

The customer also needs a clear and distinct chance to object, free of charge and in an easy manner, when the details are collected and in every later message if the customer did not initially refuse. Each message must disclose a valid address for stopping further communications and must not disguise or conceal the sender. If the sale record, collection screen, CRM record, similarity assessment, sender identity, or message template cannot prove those facts, do not rely on Article 13(2).

Keep evidence that proves the exact soft opt-in path, not a generic marketing approval. The record should connect the customer record, sale context, sender identity, product-similarity assessment, opt-out presentation, message template, and suppression-list enforcement.

Suppression evidence matters because Article 13(2) depends on the customer not having initially refused and on the customer receiving a continuing objection opportunity. Record collection-stage refusals and later unsubscribe requests in the suppression system, including every sending system that must enforce them. Track a bounced or invalid stop address as a failed objection route that needs repair; do not record it as the customer having objected.

Escalate when any condition depends on interpretation: whether a free trial is a sale, whether a service renewal is similar enough to a new product, whether a group affiliate is the same sender, whether the collection notice was clear, or whether national law adds stricter rules for a channel, recipient type, or local implementation.

The ePrivacy Directive is implemented through national law. Article 13(3) leaves Member States a choice for other direct-marketing cases, and Article 13(5) requires protection for subscribers that are not natural persons under Union and applicable national law. The Commission's 2017 proposal for a directly applicable ePrivacy Regulation was withdrawn in 2025, so it does not replace those national variations.