Email disclaimer

This email disclaimer may be used by companies, partnerships, and sole traders. The law applicable to the content of commercial emails varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Accordingly, the suitability of the template is limited as follows.

• Companies: this is for limited companies registered in England and Wales.
• Partnerships: this is for partnerships established in England and Wales.
• Sole trader: this is for sole traders operating in England and Wales.

An email disclaimer may have a number of intended functions. The three most common functions are as follows: first, it may attempt to exclude liability in certain respects (for instance, in relation to malicious software distributed by email); second, it may attempt to place confidentiality obligations upon the recipient; third it may be used to fulfil the statutory disclosure obligations of the sender.

Other possible functions include attempting to prevent accidental contracting, and notifying users about policies regarding email monitoring.

In relation to disclosures, companies in particular need to consider the effects of companies legislation upon the information that they include in emails.

The enforceability of the terms of an email disclaimer and the other elements of an email notice may be open to question. In legal proceedings, the courts will look carefully at any attempts to disclaim liability, and they have a range of statutory and common law tools at their disposal to circumscribe such limitations.

This template does not take account of any requirements of any particular regulatory authority, professional body, trade association or code of conduct. These do sometimes have implications for the drafting of email notices. Nor does this template take account of the special requirements affecting marketing emails.