Absolutely, it is both legal and do-able. Section 2.5 of the new Best Practice Guidelines from the DMA highlights what can and can’t be done.

In essence it’s all to do with permissions. If a consumer has given permission, in words opted-in, that their data may be shared with third parties, then you’re allowed to do it.

Once you’ve clarified this position, it is best practice to either:

• Send an email from the data owner (the organisation that collected the consumer’s data at the outset) explaining that their email address will be passed onto an end user. It’s essential that the individual is given the chance to opt-out of this happening; or,
• For the end user, who is going to receive the email address to explain to the individual where they got their email address from, and once again give them the opportunity to opt-out of future communications.

It is worth noting that the same should be undertaken for business-to-business email appending.

Make sure before you undertake any email appending, that you know the following information:

• How and when the list was built;
• If it’s a data pool of different data sources, satisfy yourself that the data protection notices and privacy policies were in place when the data was originally collected; and,
• How unsubscribes and relevant addresses are suppressed.

So why do it?

It allows you to open up a new communication channel with your customers, many of whom may prefer to be contacted via email than through other methods. As a result you will reduce your communication costs and be able to tailor the message more effectively.