Email Legislation Explained

European Email Legislation in 5 minutes! There has been a lot has been talk over the last couple of years - particularly since the August 2000 Distance Selling Directive did not give the direct marketing industry sufficiently clear guidelines about opt-in and opt-out status in respect of email usage. At that point it was left to individual EU Member States to ensure that Unsolicited Commercial Emails (UCE) are only sent where there is no clear objection from the consumer. This ambiguity left the way clear for the dubious spamming practices we have all witnessed over the last couple of years. Following persistent lobbying from pressure groups, MEP's and responsible email marketers, the EU Parliament finally moved in mid 2002 to clarify the position in favour of gaining explicit consent from email users. Opt-in email marketing will become the standard following the second reading of the EU Directive 2002/58/EC and its subsequent adoption later this year. So in practical terms, what does it mean when the Directive is adopted in the UK? In a nutshell, it boils down to a couple of points: - 1. "