Set country sending rules
How OmniLead decides whether an email may go to a recipient's country, which countries require consent, and how to choose block or warn.
Some countries allow business email with an opt-out. Others require the person's consent before the first message, even at work. OmniLead checks every recipient's country before each send and applies the rule for that country, so a sequence can't quietly email people in Germany or Canada without consent.
How OmniLead decides
Before every email, OmniLead runs the same checks in the same order. The first check that fails decides.
- Unsubscribed? If the person unsubscribed from your workspace, the email is blocked.
- Suppressed? If the address or its domain is on your workspace list or the global opt-out list, the email is blocked.
- Country rule. OmniLead looks up the lead's country:
- Opt-out country (for example the United States or the UK): the email is allowed, with your footer and unsubscribe link.
- Consent country with a consent record for this address: the email is allowed.
- Consent country without a consent record: your workspace policy decides, Block or Warn.
- Country not on the list: standard opt-out rules apply and the email is allowed.
- Country unknown: no country rule can apply, so the email is allowed and the check says the country is unknown.
Each decision is shown with its reason on the lead and in the sequence's Skipped list, for example "Germany requires prior consent for B2B email and none is recorded. Your workspace blocks these sends."
Countries that require consent
These countries are treated as consent countries today:
France, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Singapore, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States are on the list as opt-out countries, each with a note on the conditions that still apply.
The list is maintained
The rules live in one maintained file inside OmniLead, with the date it was last reviewed and the legal sources for every country. When a law or regulator's guidance changes, we update the file and note the change in the changelog. You can read every country's rule, law and plain-English note in Settings → Compliance → Country rules.
Choose block or warn
Owners and admins choose what happens when a consent country has no consent record.
- Block (default): the email isn't sent. The lead is skipped with the reason, and the rest of the sequence carries on.
- Warn: the email is sent, and the lead and the sequence show a warning. Choose this only if your lawyer has advised that your outreach qualifies for an exception, for example because you only email existing customers.
Open country rules
Go to Settings → Compliance and find Country rules.
Pick the policy
Under When consent is required and none is recorded, choose Block or Warn.
Save
Click Save policy. The change applies to the next email each sequence sends.
The change is recorded in the audit log with your name.
Canada is always blocked without consent
CASL is strict enough that OmniLead doesn't offer a warn option for Canada. Sends to Canadian recipients are blocked unless a consent record exists for the address, whatever your workspace policy says.
Record consent
A consent record says why you may email a person in a consent country. It stores the basis, where the consent came from, your evidence and the date.
Open the lead
Open the lead from Pipeline, a list or search to see the lead drawer.
Add a consent record
In the Consent and lawful basis section, click Add consent record.
Describe the consent
Choose the Lawful basis, then fill in Source (for example "Signed up at our booth, Web Summit 2026" or the URL of the page where the person published their address) and, optionally, Evidence, and set Date given.
Save
Click Add consent record in the dialog. The next send check for this address uses it.
If the person later withdraws consent, open the record and click Withdraw consent. The record stays for your audit trail, marked withdrawn, and consent-country sends stop.
Implied consent in Canada, Australia and New Zealand
These countries accept implied (or inferred, or deemed) consent when a person conspicuously published their work address, didn't say they refuse marketing, and your email is relevant to their role. If you rely on this, record the page where the address was published as the Source, and describe why your email fits their role under Evidence. OmniLead's provenance already stores the source URL for every address it found, so you can copy it from the provenance popover.
Can I turn country rules off?
No. You can choose Warn instead of Block for most consent countries, but the checks always run and every decision is recorded.
Does the rule follow the company's country or the person's?
It uses the lead's country. For most B2B contacts that's where the person works, which is usually the company's country.
What about enrollments through the API?
The API runs the same checks. POST /sequences/{id}/enrollments skips blocked leads and returns the reason country_blocked.