UK businesses often forget legal requirements for
e-mail-based marketing campaigns, an electronic messaging
conference in London has heard.
"Failure to comply with the Companies Act could lead to punitive
action by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)," said James
Bunting, director of strategy and research at the Communications
Corporation.
The Act requires any marketing e-mail to contain certain details
about the company involved.
These include the company's name, physical address, e-mail
address, registration number, registration place, trade union
membership and VAT registration number.
Bunting said although the ICO enforces these requirements, many
organisations are failing to comply.
According to Bunting, this is partly out of ignorance, but also
because of the relatively low fines the ICO can impose.
But he warned that could soon change when the ICO's powers of
enforcement are increased.
"Organisations should waste no time to ensure they comply with
these requirements because ICO crackdowns will increase and so will
fines," said Bunting.