Email disclaimer

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An email disclaimer can be long or short; sombre or witty; comprehensive or general; but it will be there: an extract of text, appended to every outbound communication, canvassing any one or more of the following subjects:

What it is

The disclaimer will disingenuously catalogue the email’s confidentiality (though it won’t be: you don’t protect confidences by randomly emailing them to people); its copyright (and it might be, but the commercial value of an electronic message in a world awash with the buggers is nil, so good luck suing on it); its privilege (and unless in her headlong rush to obtain legal advice having been sued, the sender mistook you for her attorney, or was one herself and mistook you for her client, it won’t be); its potential inaccuracy (this is certainly possible, and a cute counterpoint to its ostensible value as intellectual property: “look, it is copyright, but probably bullshit”); it presents existential epidemiological danger to your computer systems if opened (in which case wghat were you doing sending it to someone else, and had its intended addressee safely received this cyber-trojan-laden hell-bomb, would that have been okay?); and all that said it will impress upon the mistaken receiver a moral — but (Law of Contracts 101 check: not legal) duty to destroy it if it was, in fact, sent in error.

What it is not

It may also wax lengthily about what it is not: a subject, of course, on which any lawyer can joyfully extemporise for as long as there are cattle still out on manoeuvres. It is not professional advice (as if that won’t be dolefully apparent on its face), nor an offer or a solicitation of an offer, nor a recommendation to do anything or not do anything (this is quite the juicy double negative: “we are not telling you not to do anything”.) And what kind of person acts instinctively on a recommendation from an email anyway? (Don’t answer that: it is most of you.)

All of this served up in the certain knowledge no person having enough adult literacy to comprehend an email disclaimer would — or even could — be dim-witted or bored enough to read it, much less care about what it says. So what do we think we are achieving with an email disclaimer? Which part of the sky would fall upon our heads were it not there?

World champions

Since these things are the public face of our institutions, they should not mind us analysing them in public. Here is a collection of the JC’s favourites.

Credit/Crédit (who knows?) Agricole

This one gets points not only for extreme length and irrelevance but also for its inexplicable typos, unused definitions and formatting inconsistencies. Can you not at least run the damn thing through a spellchecker?

Where you have received a communication from CREDIT AGRICOLE CORPORATE AND INVESTMENT BANK this may include information which constitutes an Investment Recommendation as defined by the European Market Abuse Regulation (MAR), Investment Research as defined by the European Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II), or Investment Advice as defined by MiFID II. Where Investment Advice is provided, it should be noted that it is not provided on an independent basis. Please see http://www.ca-cib.com/group-overview/general-disclaimer-sales-trading.htm for important regulatory information in this regard. If you have any questions in relation to MAR and its impact on your relationship with Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank please let your salesperson know. This email does not create a legal relationship between any member of the Crédit Agricole group and the recipient or constitute investment advice. The content of this email (including any attachments) is intended solely for the addressee and access by any other person is not authorised. It may contain information which is confidential, privileged or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, (i) you should send it back to us and delete it from your system, and (ii) you are prohibited from retaining, distributing, disclosing or using (in whole or part) any of its content. Email communication may be logged and archived, monitored and/or disclosed to third parties. Crédit Agricole CIB is authorised and regulated by the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (the “ACPR”) and supervised by the European Central Bank (the “ECB”), the ACPR and the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (the “AMF”) in France. Crédit Agricole CIB London is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and subject to regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and limited regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority. Details about the extent of our regulation by the FCA and the PRA are available from Crédit Agricole CIB London on request. Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank is a public limited company (“société anonyme”) under French law, incorporated in France under SIREN number 304187701 at the Nanterre Trade and Companies Registry, with limited liability and its head office address at 12, Place des États-Unis, CS 70052, 92547 Montrouge Cedex, France. It is registered in England and Wales as an overseas company at Companies House under company number FC008194, with a UK establishment at Broadwalk House, 5 Appold Street, London, EC2A 2DA, United Kingdom (UK establishment number BR001975). Where you have received a communication from Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank this may include information which constitutes an investment recommendation as defined by the European Market Abuse Regulation of 16 April 2014 (MAR), Investment Research as defined by the European Markets in Financial Instruments Directive of 15 May 2014 (MiFID II) or Investment Advice as defined by MiFID II. Where Investment Advice is provided, it should be noted that it is not provided on an independent basis. Please see https://www.ca-cib.com/about-us/financial-information/general-disclaimer-sales-trading for more details regarding the important regulatory information in this regard. If you have any questions in relation to MAR or MiFID II and their impact on your relationship with Crédit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank please let your sales person [sic] know. Please refer to http://www.ca-cib.com/group-overview/dodd-frank-otc-derivatives.htm for any Dodd-Frank Disclosure for U.S. Persons pursuant to CFTC Regulation 23.431 Please refer to https://www.ca-cib.com/our-solutions/global-markets for certain aspects of how we handle transactions and manage potential conflicts. Please be advise [sic] that Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank ("Crédit Agricole CIB") is provisionally registered with the U.S. Commodities Future Exchange Commission ("CFTC") as a non-U.S. swap dealer pursuant to Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the "Dodd-Frank Act"). Crédit Agricole CIB is currently not registered with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”) as a security-based swap (“SBS”) dealer (“SBSD”) pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act (“SEA”), as amended by the Dodd-Frank Act. This could prevent Crédit Agricole CIB from transacting in certain products classified as SBS with certain counterparties that would result in reaching the SEC de minimis thresholds. For more information, please visit our website at Dodd Frank disclosures and notices

See also

• This email and its contents are confidential and may be privileged