Short answer: yes. No law in Antigua and Barbuda bans commercial email, and the country has no dedicated anti-spam statute of the kind the United States or Canada have. That does not make every campaign lawful, though. A marketing list is a file of personal data, and since 2013 personal data held by private businesses on both islands has been governed by the Data Protection Act, 2013 (No. 10 of 2013). How you build and use that list is what decides whether a campaign stays on the right side of the law.
This page is general information, not legal advice. For a specific campaign, speak to an Antigua and Barbuda attorney.
The two statutes that matter
Data Protection Act, 2013
The Act applies to “data users”, which includes private companies, that process personal data. Its core rule in section 5 is simple: you may not process someone’s personal data unless they have given their consent, subject to a short list of exceptions such as performing a contract with them or meeting a legal obligation. Sending promotional newsletters rarely fits one of those exceptions, so for marketing email the safe reading is that you need the subscriber’s consent.
Other principles in the Act shape everyday list management:
- Notice and choice (section 6): when you collect an address you should tell the person why, which kinds of third parties may receive it, and how to contact you to access or correct it.
- Disclosure (section 7): data collected for one purpose should not be passed to other parties without consent. Sharing a guest list with a partner resort is a disclosure.
- Security (section 8): you must protect data against loss or misuse, taking into account where it is stored, and make sure any processor, such as your email platform, gives sufficient security guarantees.
- Retention (section 9): do not keep data longer than the purpose requires.
- Access and correction (sections 11 and 16): subscribers can ask to see and correct what you hold.
Electronic Transactions Act, 2006
The Electronic Transactions Act, 2006 (No. 8 of 2006) does not contain a spam offence, but section 42 requires anyone selling goods or services to consumers electronically to give clear information about themselves, including their legal name, geographic address and an electronic means of contact. For a promotional email, that translates into an identifiable sender and a real contact point in every message. The Act also allows codes of practice for service providers, which can cover how they handle customers who send bulk unsolicited messages, so internet and hosting providers may act against spammers even without a spam statute.
Who enforces it, and what the penalties are
Under section 21 of the Data Protection Act, enforcement sits with the Information Commissioner, whose powers come from the Freedom of Information Act, 2004. The Act creates offences for collecting, storing, disposing of or disclosing personal data in breach of its rules. Under section 23, a company convicted of an offence faces a fine of up to $200,000 on summary conviction or up to $500,000 on indictment, and individuals can also face imprisonment. These are criminal provisions, not a system of administrative fines.
What this means for a campaign sent from St. John’s or Codrington
- Collect addresses with a clear, unticked opt-in and a short notice of purpose. A double opt-in confirmation gives you a record of consent.
- Identify your business in every email: trading name, physical address in Antigua or Barbuda, and a working reply or contact address.
- Offer a one-click unsubscribe and honour it promptly.
- Do not buy or rent lists. Addresses collected by someone else were not collected for your purpose.
- Choose a platform that can show its security measures and where data is stored.
Our page on permission to send email campaigns in Antigua and Barbuda walks through consent collection step by step.
Guests abroad bring their own rules
Most of the people on an Antiguan hotel, villa or yacht-charter list live overseas, and their home laws travel with them. Mailing residents of the European Union means the GDPR; residents of the United Kingdom are covered by UK GDPR and the UK’s electronic marketing rules; US recipients are covered by CAN-SPAM; and Canadian recipients by CASL, which requires consent for commercial electronic messages. Building your process to the consent standard is the practical way to satisfy all of them at once.
Where Mailpro fits
Mailpro stores your lists on private infrastructure in Switzerland, outside US jurisdiction, and never sells or rents your data. Switzerland benefits from an EU adequacy decision, which helps when your list includes European guests, and the storage-location question raised by section 8 of the Act has a clear answer. Read more on why Switzerland and on Mailpro’s GDPR-native approach.