Emailing and calling businesses in New Zealand

Can I email businesses from a list in New Zealand?

The DIA says commercial electronic messages need express, inferred or deemed consent. They must identify the sender and include a working unsubscribe option. Deemed consent can apply when a person publishes their address in a business capacity, as long as your message is relevant to their role. The Act does not cover phone calls.

Main rules: Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007. A summary of the official guidance linked below, checked 2026-11-11; not legal advice.

Email

  • Deemed consent: the address must be conspicuously published (for example on a website, brochure or magazine) in a business or official capacity, with no statement refusing unsolicited messages, and the message must be relevant to the person's business, role, functions or duties.
  • A single message can be spam. It does not need to be sent in bulk.
  • Identify the business responsible and how to contact it, with details that stay accurate for 30 days.
  • Include a free, easy unsubscribe in the same medium, and honour requests within five working days.
  • The sender must prove consent. That includes addresses in a bought database.

Phone calls

  • The DIA says the Act does not cover telemarketing such as phone calls.

Sources

Other countries: outreach rules by country.