United Kingdom - Direct Marketing UK Direct Marketing
There is a wide-range of EU legislation that impacts the direct marketing sector. Compliance requirements are stiffest for marketing and sales to private consumers. Companies need to focus on the clarity and completeness of the information they provide to consumers prior to purchase and on their approaches to collecting and using customer data. The following gives a brief overview of the most important provisions flowing from EU-wide rules on distance-selling and on-line commerce.
Processing Customer Data
The EU has strict laws governing the protection of personal data, including the use of such data for direct marketing activities. In May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became enforceable, replacing the Data Protection Directive of 1995. The GDPR is the EU’s new framework for data protection laws and includes significant changes for businesses and bodies that handle personal information. Individuals, organizations, and companies that are controllers or processors of personal data are impacted by GDPR.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Detailed information on GDPR is also available on the U.S. Commercial Service Europe website.
Distance Selling Rules
In 2011, the EU overhauled its consumer protection legislation and merged several existing rules into a single rulebook - “The Directive on Consumer Rights.” The provisions of this Directive have been in force since June 13, 2014, and replaced EU rules on distance selling to consumers and doorstep selling along with unfair contract terms and consumer goods and associated guarantees. The Directive contains provisions on core information to be provided by traders prior to the conclusion of consumer contracts. It also regulates the right of withdrawal, includes rules on the costs for the use of means of payment and bans pre-ticked boxes. Companies are advised to consult the relevant sections of EU Member States' Country Commercial Guides and to contact the Commercial Service at the U.S. Mission to the European Union for more specific guidance.
In May 2013, the EU adopted rules on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) which provide consumers the right to turn to quality alternative dispute resolution entities for all types of contractual disputes including purchases made online or offline, domestically or across borders. Only disputes regarding health and higher education are excluded. ADR and ODR legislation allows consumers and traders to resolve their disputes without going to court in an easy, fast, and inexpensive way. Under the ODR Regulation, the European Commission established an EU-wide online platform to handle consumer disputes that arise from online transactions. The platform launched on January 9, 2016 and became accessible to consumers and traders on February 15, 2016.
Financial services are the subject of a separate directive that came into force in June 2002 (2002/65/EC. This piece of legislation amended three prior existing Directives and is designed to ensure that consumers are appropriately protected with respect to financial transactions taking place where the consumer and the provider are not face-to-face. In addition to prohibiting certain abusive marketing practices, the Directive establishes criteria for the presentation of contract information. Given the special nature of financial markets, specifics are also laid out for contractual withdrawal.
Key Links:
Justice and Consumers Homepage
Consumer Protection Policies, Strategies, and Statistics
The Directive on Consumer Rights
The Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Platform
Distance Selling of Financial Services
Direct Marketing over the Internet
Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 imposes certain specific requirements connected to the direct marketing business. Promotional offers must not mislead customers and the terms that must be met to qualify for them have to be easily accessible and clear. The regulation stipulates that marketing communications must be identified as such to the recipient and requires that companies targeting customers on-line must regularly consult national opt-out registers where they exist. When an order is placed, the service provider must acknowledge receipt quickly and by electronic means, although the regulation does not attribute any legal effect to the placing of an order or its acknowledgment. This is a matter for national law. Vendors of electronically supplied services (such as software, which the EU considers a service and not a good) must also collect value added tax (see Electronic Commerce section).