Do you use electronic marketing? Are you doing it properly?

Marketing has changed so much over recent years now that technology has become more efficient. Many businesses use email and text marketing to market to indiviuals.

The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has new enforcement powers, which were introduced by the Privacy Regulations 2015 in April 2015. The
ICO has recently used its new powers and has issued its rst penalty notice. The ICO issued a monetary penalty notice of £200,000 on Help Direct UK Limited for sending thousands of unsolicited marketing texts.

Help Direct UK Limited is a Swansea-based lead generation company, which ran a marketing campaign in April 2015. The campaign lead to 6,758 complaints in one month. People complained about the messages, which were offering services to help people reclaim PPI payments amongst other things.
The company also continued to use unregistered SIM cards and dongles to avoid detection by mobile networks’ spam detectors despite being issued with an earlier enforcement notice from the ICO.

The ICO considers unsolicited text marketing as “a matter of significant public concern” and with the ICO now nding it easier to issue monetary penalties companies should ensure that their direct marketing activities comply fully with the Privacy Regulations.

Some business are not sure about what they can and cannot do in terms of electronic marketing and in particular whether consent from an individual is or is not required. This can be a very complicated area and those businesses that wish to use direct marketing should familiarise themselves with the relevant statutory rules and codes of practice before starting a direct marketing campaign.

Here are a few examples of how the Privacy Regulations apply to di erent types are marketing in respect of individuals:

• General right to opt-out – Individuals have general statutory rights, at any time, by notice in writing to require a marketer to cease, or not to begin, processing their personal data for direct marketing purposes.

• Email (including email, text, video and picture marketing messages) – The recipient’s prior consent is required and it must be given to the sender. The identity of the address of the sender must be included in each communication

• Automated calls or communications (A system which is capable of automatically initiating a sequence of calls and is not live speech) – The recipient’s prior consent is required. The caller must identify themselves and provide a contact address or Freephone number where they can be reached.

• Live telephone calls – A recipient’s prior consent is not required to make unsolicited calls, however, it is important to be aware that individuals can opt-out. Therefore, businesses cannot call if the recipient has said “no”! Businesses and charities must not make unsolicited calls to numbers that are registered on the Telephone Preference Service unless they have the recipient’s prior consent. So, if a recipient has not said ‘no’ and is not registered on the Telephone Preference Service, it is possible to call them.

• Fax – The recipient’s prior consent is required. Recipients have a general right to opt-out and individuals can register on the Fax Preference Service. The sender must identify themselves and provide a contact address or freephone number where they can be reached.

These rules vary slightly for corporate recipients but generally corporate recipients have no statutory right to opt out and prior consent is generally not required. However business should satisfy themselves that they are complying with the regulations before marketing to corporate recipients.

Think about how the regulations apply to you on what type of marketing you want to do, how you are going to do it, before you do it!

(This article should not be treated or relied upon as legal advice and you should seek legal assistance for your own individual circumstances)