Do I have to screen a B2B mailing against the Mailing Preference Service?

Not for letters addressed to a business at a business address. MPS is a consumer scheme covering individuals at their home address. If part of your list is consumer addresses or sole traders working from home, screening becomes sensible.

How long does a request to stop mailing last?

Indefinitely. The right to object to direct marketing has no expiry and no balancing test. Suppress the record rather than deleting it, so a future data purchase cannot reintroduce them.

Direct mail and the law

Does the Mailing Preference Service apply to B2B post?

Q: What is the business equivalent of MPS for post?

There is no statutory business suppression file for post in the way CTPS exists for telephone calls. The protection comes from the absolute right to object under UK GDPR, and from your own suppression list.

The honest answer is that MPS was never built for the letters you are sending, and the suppression that actually protects you is the one you keep yourself.

Do I need consent at all? Request an invite

Written August 2026. General information, not legal advice.

The short answer

The Mailing Preference Service is a consumer scheme. People register their home address to stop unsolicited consumer post, so it is not a suppression file for letters addressed to a business at a business address. There is no statutory business equivalent for post in the way CTPS exists for telephone calls. What you must do instead is keep your own suppression list, honour every objection permanently, and take extra care with sole traders and home based businesses, where a business address and a home address are the same thing.

The alphabet soup, sorted

MPS, the Mailing Preference Service. Consumer post, registered by individuals for their home address. Not a business file.
CTPS, the Corporate Telephone Preference Service. Telephone calls to businesses. Statutory, and screening against it is not optional if you are calling.
TPS. Telephone calls to individuals and sole traders. Also statutory.
FPS. Fax. Yes, still a thing, and still statutory.
The Bereavement Register and similar files. Consumer focused, and worth screening against for any large consumer mailing.

Notice the pattern. The statutory preference services cover phone and fax, which are electronic and therefore live under PECR. Post does not appear in that list, because post is not electronic.

So can you post to any business you like?

Legally, in most cases, yes. Sensibly, no. The absence of a suppression file is not permission to be a nuisance, and the two things that will actually cause you a problem are these.

The objection is the rule that bites. Under UK GDPR the right to object to direct marketing is absolute. There is no balancing test, no legitimate interest that outweighs it, and no time limit. Somebody writing back to say stop is the only preference service that matters to you, and it applies for good.

What a working suppression process looks like

One list, held centrally, that every campaign is screened against before it prints.
Records kept as suppressed rather than deleted. Delete the record and your next list purchase reintroduces them, which is the single most common way companies mail someone who has already asked them not to.
An easy route to object on the letter itself. An address, an email, a QR code. Make it easy and you will get an objection instead of a complaint.
Sole traders and home based businesses flagged before the run, because those addresses behave like consumer addresses even when the name on the letter is a company.
A note of the date and the source of every objection, so you can show your working if anyone asks.

Where Rockkt sits in this

Suppression is a feature, not a spreadsheet. Rockkt keeps the list at company level so it survives staff changes and new data, and flags addresses that look residential at the point you build the list, rather than the week after the post goes out.

General information rather than legal advice. If you are running large or regulated mailings, read the ICO's direct marketing guidance and take advice on your own process.

Questions people actually ask

Do I have to screen a B2B mailing against MPS?

Not for letters addressed to a business at a business address, because MPS is a consumer scheme covering individuals at home. If any part of your list is consumer addresses, or sole traders working from home, screening becomes sensible and in some cases expected.

What is the business equivalent of MPS for post?

There is not one in the way CTPS exists for telephone calls. The protection for businesses comes from the right to object under UK GDPR and from your own suppression list, which is why keeping that list properly is the practical answer.

Is CTPS the same thing for letters?

No. CTPS is about telephone calls to businesses and is statutory. It says nothing about post.

Someone asked us to stop. How long does that last?

Indefinitely. The right to object to direct marketing has no expiry and no balancing test. Suppress rather than delete, so a future data purchase cannot quietly bring them back.

Consent and B2B post Sole traders and home addresses Rockkt pricing