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Are you complying with
the law?
Direct Marketing is a
powerful way of creating
new business, promoting
your products and
services, and generating
leads. The following is
a list of legal
requirements and
recommended
best-practice that
companies should be
aware of for direct
marketing*.
Fax Preference Service (FPS) - legal requirement
This service allows
companies to register
their fax numbers free
of charge on a central
database indicating that
they do not wish to
receive advertising by
fax. Legally, all
companies carrying out
fax campaigns must sweep
their data against the
FPS register before they
perform a campaign
Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and Corporate Telephone
Preference Service (CTPS)
- legal requirements
These two services
provide companies with a
centralised list of
individuals and
companies who do not
wish to receive
telesales calls.
Legally, all companies
carrying out telesales
campaign must sweep
their data against these
registers.
Mailing Preference Service (MPS) - good practice
Abiding by the MPS is not a legal requirement, but in line with
good practice it is
recommended that
companies maintain a
list of companies who do
not wish to receive your
correspondence and
suppress contacts from
this mailing list.
Email marketing
There is currently no
Email Preference Service
run by the DMA in the
UK. However, the Privacy
and Electronics
Communications (EC
Directive) Regulations
2003
means that it is now
illegal to send SPAM
email. The following
rules apply to all
marketing messages by
email;
1. The sender must not
conceal their identify
2. The sender must
provide a valid
unsubscribe/opt-out
If it is a corporate
recipient prior consent
is not required, but
companies cannot send
unsolicited emails to
individual subscribers
unless the following
rules are applied;
1. The email address was
collected during
negotiations or sales process
2. The message relates
to similar products and
services, and
3. The recipient was
given the option to opt
out
Copyright law
Databases are protected
under the Design and
Patents Act 1988 and the
European Union 1996
Directive No. 96/9/EC. You cannot
collect and use data
without the owners
permission or outside
the terms of the owners
legal conditions of use.
For example, collecting
information from
directories or the
internet, such as Yellow
Pages/Yell.com for
sales/marketing purposes
constitutes an
infringement of
copyright and could
result in prosecution
and heavy fines.
Ignorance is no excuse -
using a contact list
supplied by a new sales
person, for example,
means you could still be
prosecuted if you are
not aware that the data
was protected by
copyright.
Data Protection Act
The Data Protection Act
relates to the
processing of personal
information held on a
database. It does not
relate to companies,
although as some
businesses are sole
traders or partnerships
the Data Protection Act
may relate to them if
the business information
is the same as personal
information.
Data Controller
If a company holds data
and manages a database
that includes personal
data it must be a
registered Data
Controller with the
Information
Commissioners Office. It
is important that your
database provider is a
registered data
controller and this can
be checked by the ICO.
Insight Data is fully
registered with the ICO.
Direct Marketing Association
The Direct Marketing
Association is the
authority on direct
marketing and works with
Government to set the
standards, regulations
and best practice.
It is recommended that
companies active in
direct marketing apply
for membership of the
DMA or use a data/direct
marketing agency who are
members.
For more details visit
our page on the
Direct Marketing Association
The above guidelines are
provided in good faith
but we cannot guarantee
the accuracy of
information. Please
refer to the relevant
authorities for full
details.
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