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EU E-marketing requirements

01/04/2020

Locations

United Kingdom

This table below sets out national law consent requirements for sending business-to-consumer ('B2C') and business-to-business ('B2B') email marketing around Europe (including the European Economic Area member states, Switzerland and United Kingdom).  For European Economic Area countries, the national law consent requirements derive from national law implementations of the European Union's Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive 2002/58/EC.  

For the purposes of interpreting the table below:

  • ‘Opt-in’ means sending marketing to the recipient only where it has taken an unambiguous positive action to consent (e.g., ticking a box, clicking an "agree" button, or confirming consent in writing).
  • ‘Opt-out’ means sending marketing to the recipient unless they take an action to refuse or unsubscribe from marketing (e.g., ticking an “opt out” box or clicking an unsubscribe link). 
  • 'Soft Opt-in' means that the sending of e-marketing to the recipient is permitted on an Opt-out basis if:
    • the recipient's details were originally collected "in the context of a sale";
    • the entity sending the marketing is the same legal entity that collected the recipient's details initially;
    • the marketing relates to "similar" products and/or services for which the recipient's details were originally obtained; and
    • the recipient is given the opportunity, free of charge, to object to the e-marketing, both at the time their details were collected and in each subsequent communication.
  • 'Transaction required' or 'Transaction not required' indicates whether a completed sale transaction (i.e., the exchange of money for goods or services) is necessary in order to satisfy the Soft Opt-in requirement that the recipient's details are collected "in the context of a sale". Where a transaction is not required, a commercial relationship with the recipient must generally still exist in order to be able to rely on Soft Opt-in (e.g., the recipient has submitted a product enquiry or requested a quote from the business)
See the full list of requirements>>>

 

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