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NO

As of 13 August 2026, AI cannot check whether a sales email follows PECR.

This still needs a person who signs their name to it.

Can you do it?

5 minutesto a draft.

n/ait cannot be self-verified.

Cost, all in£0

Skill neededchat-fluent

Who has to check ita professional

What the alternative costsA solicitor or data protection specialist is the human alternative; no comparable price is provided here.

If this goes wrong, you send unlawful marketing and your organisation carries the consequences, including complaints and possible enforcement.

What to actually do

  1. Hand it to a person

    The route this page recommends

    Someone with a licence or accountable authority has to sign this before it counts.

  2. Use a tool built for this

    Second choice

  3. Do it yourself

    The distant third

    A chat interface gets you a draft, but you cannot verify it yourself. That is the catch.

    How to actually do it

    1. Open the full draft email and copy its subject line, body, sender name, sender address, contact details and unsubscribe wording into a working document.
    2. Gather the campaign facts for each recipient group, including whether recipients are individuals, sole traders, partnerships or limited companies, how the addresses were obtained, and whether any existing customer relationship exists.
    3. Open your consent records, suppression-list process and source records, then note the date, wording and scope of any consent without exposing unnecessary personal data.
    4. Paste the email, campaign facts, evidence and current ICO guidance into a chatbot using the supplied prompt.
    5. Ask the model to produce separate findings for each recipient group and to mark every unsupported conclusion as unclear rather than filling the gap.
    6. Compare each flagged issue with the current ICO guidance and your records, then send the email and evidence to a UK solicitor or data protection specialist for a serious or disputed campaign.

    Prompt

    Assess this proposed UK sales email for PECR compliance, but do not give a definitive legal opinion. Use only the facts and sources I provide, state clearly where a fact is missing, and separate legal requirements from practical risk controls. Check: the type of recipient, whether the message is an electronic marketing communication, the lawful basis or consent evidence, any applicable existing-customer soft opt-in conditions, the source and accuracy of the contact details, sender identity, contact details, opt-out or unsubscribe method, suppression-list handling, and whether the content matches the stated purpose. For each issue, quote the relevant wording, explain why it may matter, state what evidence is needed, and label the result as pass, fail, unclear or outside the information supplied. Do not invent facts, consent, exemptions, guidance or penalties. End with a short list of questions a UK solicitor or data protection specialist should answer before sending.

Email:
[PASTE THE FULL EMAIL]

Campaign facts:
[STATE WHO WILL RECEIVE IT, WHETHER THEY ARE INDIVIDUALS, SOLE TRADERS, PARTNERSHIPS OR LIMITED COMPANIES, HOW THEIR DETAILS WERE OBTAINED, WHAT CONSENT OR CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP EXISTS, WHAT PRODUCT OR SERVICE IS BEING MARKETED, AND HOW UNSUBSCRIBES ARE HANDLED]

Evidence and current guidance:
[PASTE THE RELEVANT CONSENT RECORDS, SUPPRESSION PROCESS AND CURRENT ICO OR OTHER AUTHORITATIVE GUIDANCE YOU WANT CHECKED]

    Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.

What it gets wrong

  • It cannot establish whether your consent records are genuine, sufficiently specific or properly linked to each recipient.
  • It cannot reliably decide whether the existing-customer soft opt-in applies to your particular relationship and product.
  • It cannot turn missing campaign records into evidence or confirm that your suppression process works in practice.
  • It cannot take responsibility for the legal conclusion, even when its checklist sounds certain.

What makes this a NO: legal accountability, regulated advice and context depth.

How we scored this

Five axes, each scored nought to two by hand: ten means AI carries the task cleanly, and the thresholds that turn a total into YES, PARTLY or NO are published in the methodology. Each axis name links to its definition.

AxisScore (0–2)
Output2
Inputs1
Verification0
Liability0
Effort delta2
Total5 / 10

The methodology and its thresholds are published in full.

FAQ

Can ChatGPT check if my sales email is PECR compliant?
It can identify likely PECR issues and list the evidence you still need, but it cannot give you a dependable legal clearance. Your organisation remains responsible for the decision, so a serious or disputed campaign needs a UK solicitor or data protection specialist.
Does PECR apply to cold emails to businesses?
It can apply differently depending on whether the recipient is an individual, sole trader, partnership or limited company, and other facts still matter. Do not treat a company address as automatic permission to send marketing, and check the current ICO guidance for your recipient groups.
Can AI tell me if I have consent to send a marketing email?
No. AI can compare the consent wording and your records with the requirements you provide, but it cannot prove that the records are complete, authentic or linked to the right person. A data protection specialist should resolve uncertainty before the campaign is sent.
Is using AI to check PECR compliance safe?
Use it as a checklist and drafting aid, not as legal clearance, and remove unnecessary personal data before pasting campaign records. This is not professional advice, and a UK solicitor or data protection specialist should assess a serious campaign.

Nearby answers

All Prospecting & outreach rulings

Assessed by gpt-5.6-luna (gpt-5.6-luna) on 2026-08-13, second-checked by an independent model. Wrong somewhere? Email [email protected] and it gets re-checked.

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