The strong interest and the
exponential growth of inboxes in Europe support the potential of email
marketing. However, the market is split on how to shield users from a
potentially invasive marketing mechanism. National legislators in Europe are
doing their best to confuse marketers and users: Several EU countries approved
specific legislation to protect their citizens' privacy online, while the
European Parliament tried to regulate part of the field at the EU level. The
result is a confusing legal position across Europe.
The majority favour opt-out.
Ten EU member states, including France and the UK, and the European
Parliament remain happy with a simple approach to email marketing, they only
allow for users to opt-out if they do not want to receive marketing emails. This
approach is similar to the one adopted in the US.
Five countries favour an opt-in
approach. A handful of EU countries, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Germany,
and Italy, have adopted specific national legislation demanding the consent of
users before email marketing. Privacy concerns together with steady lobbying
from ISPs like Wannadoo and online advertisers like 24/7Media motivated this
approach.
Faced with an uneven legislative
landscape, marketers are not presenting a common front when it comes to email
marketing practices. Some of them, like 24/7 Media, Yoptin, and MessageMedia,
favour the more managed, opt-in approach, while other, more aggressive marketers
consider opt-out enough of a protection for online consumers.
Communications Data Protection Directive is a
DTI Directive to be aware of for Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE). This exists
in a draft form at the moment and is currently being discussed by Member States
and the European Commission. The proposed implementation date for this directive
in the UK has been moved forward to January 2003. The current draft contains a
requirement for Member States to adopt an opt-in approach for UCE to natural
persons (my understanding is that in the UK this means private individuals and
sole traders anywhere in the UK, and Partnerships in England, Wales and Northern
Ireland). For legal persons (e.g. limited COs and plc's), the Directive leaves
it up to Member States to adopt whatever measures are felt necessary.
Google will launch an email agent
service by 2005 delivering to users a flexible stream of newsletters and
promotional emails according to a very specific query and finding email lists
that users want to subscribe to. Surfers will have their global opt-in profile
hosted by Google and will be able to update their preferences at any time.
Coupled with this, Dot-EU
addresses will not be available for marketing activities. In 2002, the
European Union, facing a surge of complaints from consumer advocates and ISPs on
the exploding volumes of unsolicited promotional email, will forbid any form of
promotional activity addressed to a name@company.eu email address.
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