NextStep respects contact consent at the journey level via the **Require consent** toggle in each journey's **Delivery safeguards** tab.
When enabled, a contact's Consent status must be **Opted in**. Contacts with **Unknown** or **Opted out** consent are blocked. A contact who opted out of the journey's preference topic is also blocked.
If a contact unsubscribes or bounces, they are suppressed from future marketing sends.
Transactional journeys (configured in Delivery safeguards → Purpose) are not subject to consent checks, but hard suppression rules (like bounces or spam complaints) still apply.