More than
a third of all UK businesses are unaware of new anti-spam
legislation which came into force today (11 December), according to
a survey of Institute of Directors members.
The UK Privacy and
Electronic Communications Regulations, which implement an EU
directive of the same name, require companies to gain consent from
individuals before they can send them electronic communications for
marketing purposes.
The law aims to
address the growing problem of spam, which now accounts for more
than half of all e-mail traffic, and costs global businesses an
estimated £6.5bn a year in lost productivity.
Although the
legislation went through three months of consultation, the snapshot
poll of 118 IoD members found that 35% were unaware of the new
legislation.
Of those
respondents whose companies engage in e-mail marketing, a worrying
29% said they did not know about, or understand, what the new
legislation means for them.
Jonathan Cummings,
director of e-business at the IoD, said the government should have
done more to address this lack of awareness.
"The DTI has now
spent many months finalising the regulations, but with over one
third of businesses unaware of the changes, perhaps more time
should have been spent publicising the new legislation,” he
said.
“With many
definitions still fairly loose, the implementation of this
directive could be confusing, especially for small businesses who
don't have an in-house expert.”
Security experts
have criticised the regulations suggesting they will be
ineffective, as they do not cover business-to-business
communication and e-mails sent from outside Europe, in particular
the US.
Dave Marchese, partner at law firm Davenport Lyons, said,
"Although the new law is very significant it will have more of an
effect for responsible e-mail marketing companies than it will for
those who are irresponsible. It may even help irresponsible
spammers by making people confirm live e-mail addresses."
Cummings agreed with these points, but added, “It will encourage a
best-practice and more effective approach for business, clearly
differentiating legitimate e-mail marketing from spam.”