Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations

If you undertake email marketing campaigns you also need to adhere to new rules which came into force in 2003 and form part of (Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations)

The Regulations cover unsolicited direct marketing messages by phone, fax, email and text. In essence they dictate that an individual’s contact details are collected by an organisation through commercial negotiations with that person (e.g. as a result of selling them a service), that their details are then subsequently used just for marketing similar services to and whereby the individual is given opportunity to opt out of receiving such marketing messages.

Faxes and phone calls must not therefore be made to people without their prior consent. Organisations also need to check their direct marketing lists against people registered with the TPS (Telephone Preference Service) and the FPS (Fax Preference Service) for individuals and the Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS) in addition.

Electronic mail marketing

The rules therefore apply to marketing messages sent by email and text and state that the sender must not conceal their identity and all emails must offer a simple way to ‘opt-out’ of receiving such communication .

The regulations are to stop spam, or unsolicited approaches, and states that the sender must have the recipient’s prior consent before sending email marketing messages.

There are exemptions to this rule such as if the recipient’s address has already been collected though other negotiations (during a commercial relationship) and where the marketing is for similar products/services for instance.

‘Opt Out’

The individual should be given an opportunity to refuse marketing at both the point when their details are collected and at any time thereafter.

The regulations cover marketing messages sent from within the EU. There is currently no specific legislation to cover email sent to business addresses.

Further details can be found here and here.

The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations are enforced by The Information Commissioner.

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