The Law

The activities of Email and Phone Marketing are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office and are operated within the terms of the Data Protection Act.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) was set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals. Law abiding users of properly compiled data that is being used for legitimate purposes, should not feel inhibited or threatened by the Data Protection Act.

If we do become aware that any users of our business lists are not complying with the terms of the Data Protection Act, or are otherwise behaving unlawfully; we reserve the right to suspend our services and to report the incident to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting transparency by public bodies and data privacy for individuals. The ICO is charged with enforcing and overseeing four important pieces of legislation: the Data Protection Act 1998, the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications 2003. The ICO operates through three regional offices, that were established in 2003 as a result of the devolution process in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The email marketing rules do not affect your obligations in relation to personal data under the Data Protection Act 1988. All companies must comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act. If your business is a private or public limited company or a Limited Liability Partnership, the Companies Act 1985 requires all of your business emails (and your letterhead and order forms) to include the following details:

• Your company registration number;
• Your place of registration (e.g. Scotland or England & Wales); and
• Your registered office address.

Unsolicited Marketing Emails
Emails sent to corporate subscribers, which do not contain any personal information, are not specifically regulated under English law, except that the emails must contain certain information (see above). Corporate subscribers in this context includes limited companies, PLCs and LLPs. It does not include Sole traders or General Partnerships.

In all other cases, unsolicited emails sent for direct marketing purposes will be unlawful ,unless the recipient has in some way consented to receive the email. Please note, the restrictions on spamming individual subscribers apply not just to consumers, but to sole traders and partners in business partnerships, as they are still individuals, even though they are in business and even if you email them in their business capacity.

If a person asks to be removed from our database, they are immediately removed and our systems ensure that they are not added again at a later date.

Your Obligations
The Data Protection Act requires you, as a user of email, postal or telephone marketing business lists to:

• Only send unsolicited direct marketing email to an individual at a business email address, provided the email is work-related and is promoting a product or service to the business.
• Always identify your company properly and include an unsubscribe option for emails.
• Provide an option for postal addressees to remove themselves from your list.
• Include a return address on all envelopes, for Royal Mail to use to return any letters that are incorrectly addressed.
• Not to make sales calls to CTPS registered numbers; however you can call these numbers for market research purposes.

Any postal "gone aways" can be returned to us. We will update our records and if you posted the letters less four weeks after purchasing the records, we will provide two additional records free of charge, for all verified gone aways. Please forward the original returned envelope to receive the free additional records.

It is recommended that all data records that you that you wish to reuse are either checked every six months or are updated by buying the latest business list edition from EmailPhoneMarketing

Caveat
Please ensure that if you use email marketing, you are familiar with the relevant law. You should always seek legal advice if you are not sure. This text is not designed to replace formal legal advice. It is an introduction to some of the key issues, from a practical perspective and may contain some inaccuracies.