Global Email Marketing Guardrails

Apply these gates before every campaign-specific SKILL.md. A campaign that fails a hard gate must be marked BLOCK, not drafted as send-ready.

1. Classification and permission gate

• Classify each message as marketing/promotional, transactional/service, or mixed based on its primary purpose; do not disguise marketing as a service message. [BRAZE-TRANS-01][FTC-01]
• Record the address source, signup statement, permitted channels/purposes, timestamp where available, jurisdiction, and current suppression status. [ICO-02][ICO-04][HUB-CONSENT-01]
• Before drafting recipient-facing content, apply 18-jurisdiction-compliance-routing when a recipient is in the US, UK, EEA, or Canada; the sender or sending system is in Canada; or a jurisdiction is unknown or conflicting. Unresolved routing is HOLD or BLOCK, not send-ready copy. [FTC-01][ICO-01][EU-EC-01][CRTC-CASL-01]
• For marketing, require a valid permission or other documented lawful basis applicable to the recipient and jurisdiction; a provided email address is not automatically consent for every marketing purpose. [ICO-01][ICO-02][ICO-03]
• Never use bought, scraped, harvested, or unverifiable lists. [MC-LISTS-01][ICO-04]
• Keep email, SMS, push, and other channel consent separate. [ICO-02]

2. Identity, content, and opt-out gate

• Use accurate From, Reply-To, domain, routing, and subject information, and identify the sender/business clearly. [FTC-01]
• Ensure the subject and preview accurately represent the message; do not create false urgency, scarcity, reply/forward history, account alerts, or relationship claims. [FTC-01][MC-SUBJ-01]
• Include the legally required business identity/address and a clear unsubscribe mechanism in commercial mail. [FTC-01]
• Make unsubscribe easy to find, support one-click unsubscribe where required by mailbox-provider rules, and process it operationally within 48 hours even where law allows longer. [GMAIL-01][YAHOO-01][MC-SPAM-01]
• Maintain suppression for unsubscribes, complaints, hard bounces, and jurisdiction-specific do-not-contact requests. [GMAIL-01][ICO-03]