Marketing consent and preference management (UK PECR, with US email rules)
For marketing coordinators, CRM and email platform administrators, and small-business owners who decide who gets marketing and keep the records that prove it. Complete 'Email marketing basics and consent' first. This course goes deeper: choosing the right rule for an email or text campaign under the UK's Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), writing consent requests and records that would stand up to a challenge, handling objections and opt-outs with a suppression list, checking a cookie banner, and comparing the US CAN-SPAM rules for commercial email. Jurisdictions: UK (PECR and UK GDPR, based on ICO guidance) and US federal (CAN-SPAM). The ICO says parts of its guidance are under review after the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, so check the current version. This is not legal advice and doesn't grant any professional qualification; your data protection lead decides cases this course doesn't settle.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- About 100 minutes
- Contents
- 5 lessons · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Choose the PECR rule that allows an email or text campaign: consent, a soft opt-in, or the corporate subscriber rule
- Write a consent request and a consent record that show who consented, when, what they were told, how, and any withdrawal
- Apply objections, opt-outs and consent withdrawals across channels using a suppression list
- Check a cookie consent banner and identify which storage and access technologies need consent
- Identify the CAN-SPAM requirements for a commercial email sent to US recipients
Course outline
- 1.Choosing the PECR rule that allows an email or text campaignLesson · 18 min
- 2.Writing a consent request and a consent recordLesson · 18 min
- 3.Applying objections, opt-outs and withdrawals with a suppression listLesson · 16 min
- 4.Checking a cookie consent bannerLesson · 16 min
- 5.Identifying the CAN-SPAM requirements for US recipientsLesson · 12 min
- 6.Marketing consent and preference management (UK PECR, with US email rules): knowledge checkKnowledge check · 14 questions
- 7.Marketing consent and preference management (UK PECR, with US email rules): practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 8.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- ICO: How do we comply with the PECR electronic mail marketing rules?
- ICO: Business-to-business marketing
- ICO: How should we obtain, record and manage consent? (UK GDPR)
- ICO Direct marketing guidance: Respect people's preferences
- ICO storage and access technologies guidance: What are storage and access technologies?
- ICO storage and access technologies guidance: How do we manage consent in practice?
- ICO storage and access technologies guidance: What are the exceptions?
- US FTC: CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business
See it with your own jobs and topics
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