It appears that the worst fears of the ePrivacy Directive have been averted.

Although not set in concrete, The European Commission has published its official text for the replacement to the ePrivacy Directive, which softens clauses that could have hampered B2B marketing.

Business to business (B2B) marketers will keep their current status when contacting company representatives by email, assuming the new European Commission's ePrivacy Directive text continues to be adopted.

A leaked version of the text released before Christmas suggested that marketers would need an opt-in to contact both 'natural' and 'legal' entities (ie. companies), stripping B2B marketers of their current exemption. The new text released by the Commission yesterday suggests that the leaked version has been amended to reinstate the exemption from May 2018.

Let's hope that this policy carries through to the final version of the text which has yet to be agreed between the European Commission, Council and Parliament.