More than three years after it became law in the U.K., nearly a third of retailers still don't comply with the EU Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications, U.K. direct marketing firm CDMS has found.
The Europe-wide legislation, which governs email communications with private individuals, forbids companies from sending email marketing messages to recipients who have not explicitly opted in to receive them. It clearly spells out that offering someone the opportunity to opt out of receiving unsolicited messages (or pre-checking opt-in boxes) does not comply with the directive.
Repeating a similar study conducted in 2005, the CDMS examined the opt-in practices of 200 companies across 12 big consumer business sectors. It found that just 69 percent—only 3 percent more than last time—are complying with the legislation.
Although this increase is a positive step, it also means a significant percentage of U.K. companies are still putting their carefully built brands at risk. To have a successful email program you need permission. It's not only a matter of consideration; it is now also legally regulated.
To ward off potential future legal and public-relations woes, the CDMS urges non-compliant companies to begin implementing solid permission practices and focusing on recipient concerns over spam and privacy. You can read the article here.
Email Marketing Strategy from Silverpop CEO Bill Nussey
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Nearly One-third of U.K. Retailers Break Email Privacy Laws
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Comments
Bill
You are misinformed about UK law! The above just isn't true.
Confusion has arisen because legally there is a difference between the term "consent", which is what the law actually requires, and "opt-in," which is what everyone seems to think the law requires. In fact, the rules are not as restrictive as some have suggested.
Even consent is not always necessary. If promoting similar products to existing customers, or those consumers whose contact details the marketer obtained when selling or negotiating a sale, consent is not needed provided an opt-out is given on collection of the e-mail addresses and an unsubscribe option is included with each e-mail sent.
But if this does not apply - i.e. if the marketer is cold-calling by e-mail - the Regulation that causes concern says that consent is needed from the recipient before sending unsolicited e-mail marketing to individual subscribers (which do not include corporate subscribers).
The Information Commissioner, responsible for enforcing the Regulations, has issued guidance on this which confirms that ticking a box is not the only way to get consent. Consent can be obtained, for example, by clicking an icon, sending an e-mail or subscribing to a service. So a business can build a database of e-mail subscribers and legitimately market its products to them without needing to provide an opt-in box, provided it gets its wording correct at the point of subscription.
The key points are that there must be some form of positive action by the individual, they must understand that they are consenting and they must understand what they are consenting to. A clear and upfront privacy statement that says something like "if you sign up for this service you will be consenting to receiving e-mail marketing from us unless you tick the opt-out box provided" may, according to the Commissioner, be sufficient to gain consent. That is not much different to what many responsible e-marketers have done in the past.
from
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/01/26/prior_consent_does_not_mean/
Posted by: Robin Grant | April 19, 2007 01:28 PM