diff --git a/src/validate/formatter/EmailFormatter.js b/src/validate/formatter/EmailFormatter.js
index 0900fc2..31d200f 100644
--- a/src/validate/formatter/EmailFormatter.js
+++ b/src/validate/formatter/EmailFormatter.js
@@ -65,7 +65,14 @@ module.exports = require( './PatternFormatter' )(
                 // Must be a valid hostname and may contain comments in
                 // parenthesis. IPs are technically allowed in brackets, but
                 // we're not going to support that crap.
-                '[a-zA-Z0-9-.()]+' +
+                // begins with a letter or a number
+                '[a-zA-Z0-9]+' +
+                // then can have any other acceptable chars
+                '[a-zA-Z0-9-]*' +
+                // and optional subdomains
+                '(?:\\.[a-zA-Z0-9-]+)*' +
+                // TLD
+                '\\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}' +
             '$'
         ),
 
diff --git a/test/validate/formatter/EmailFormatterTest.js b/test/validate/formatter/EmailFormatterTest.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c451f32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/validate/formatter/EmailFormatterTest.js
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+/**
+ * @license
+ * StringFormat formatter test
+ *
+ *  Copyright (C) 2010-2019 R-T Specialty, LLC.
+ *
+ *  This file is part of liza.
+ *
+ *  liza is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ *  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ *  the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+ *  (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ *  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ *  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ *  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ *  GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ *  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ *  along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ */
+
+var liza   = require( '../../../' ),
+    Sut    = liza.validate.formatter.EmailFormatter,
+    assert = require( 'assert' );
+
+
+describe( 'validate.formatter.StringFormat', function()
+{
+    // test email addresses from
+    // https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/testing123/2009/02/06/email-address-test-cases/
+    [
+        "email@domain.com",
+        "firstname.lastname@domain.com",
+        "email@subdomain.domain.com",
+        "firstname+lastname@domain.com",
+        'email"@domain.com',
+        "1234567890@domain.com",
+        "email@domain-one.com",
+        "_______@domain.com",
+        "email@domain.name",
+        "email@domain.co.jp",
+        "firstname-lastname@domain.com",
+    ].forEach( email_address => assert.equal( Sut.parse( email_address ), email_address ) );
+
+    [
+        "",
+        "plainaddress",
+        "#@%^%#$@#$@#.com",
+        "@domain.com",
+        "Joe Smith <email@domain.com>",
+        "email.domain.com",
+        // "email@domain@domain.com",
+        ".email@domain.com",
+        "email.@domain.com",
+        "email..email@domain.com",
+        "あいうえお@domain.com",
+        "email@domain.com (Joe Smith)",
+        "email@domain",
+        "email@-domain.com",
+        "email@domain..com",
+    ].forEach( email_address => assert.throws( () => Sut.parse( email_address ), Error ) );
+} );