Direct Marketing Commission - Enforcing Higher Industry Standards

In a recent letter from George Kidd, the DMC’s Chief Commissioner to the new Information Commissioner, he said he hoped to build on the DMC’s strong relationship with the ICO.  Self-regulation, he said, is in part about driving compliance with national statutory requirements within a sector as well as setting sector standards.  He agrees with the newly appointed Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham who, in a recent speech about accountability and GDPR, said that “it’s clear that a lot people feel they’ve lost control of their own data. People feel that keeping control of their most important information used to be simple, but that over the years, their sense of power over their personal data has slipped its moorings.”

The DMC has taken and investigated complaints about marketing and ‘lead generation’ activities and it has set out its concerns over the reliance some businesses put on consents to marketing that are as unclear as they are old.  The DMA are taking up this challenge with testing and audits within their newly revised compliance process.   Given the various live issues around data-sourcing, the nature and clarity of consents and the form and content of marketing in some industries, the DMC’s Annual Report gives some assurance as to the generally high and wide levels of compliance with the new DMA Code.

The DMC’s annual report can be downloaded from http://www.dmcommission.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/DMC-Annual-Report-15-16.pdf

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The Direct Marketing Commission warmly welcomes the announcement by BT of new customer services that prevent spam calls.

In 2014 in our Annual Report and in evidence to an All Party political group we argued the case for action at the network level alongside regulation, co-regulation and work to inform and empower people.  It has been a long-time coming but it is good that this is now happening. We would look to all fixed and mobile carriers to look at how this protection can be assured for all.

For our part the DMC has taken and investigated complaints about marketing and so-called “lead generation” activities. We have set out our concerns over the reliance some businesses put on consents to marketing that are as unclear as they are old. The Direct Marketing Association are taking up this challenge with testing and audits. It is important these are set against clear and challenging requirements.

This is part of the “jigsaw solution” that looks necessary here as in other fields of consumer protection. Smart use of technology and meaningful industry expectations sit alongside action to educate and empower users and regulation. For our part regulators must learn from our past experiences.

Treating every sector and every service the same makes no sense when the commercial drivers and the nature of the customer relationship vary dramatically. Anyone looking at how the incentives, personal injury and PPI businesses had to reach out and capture clients should not have been surprised at how some of them went about their business. Sudden shifts in circumstances can stimulate rapid and sometimes unacceptable responses from those who want to get high benefit from the changes.

As soon as the Government suggested a far more liberal regime from taking funds from pension funds the DMC flagged the risk both of rogue activity but also of high volume and aggressive marketing to the millions who might be tempted to take advantage of the changes. Our worry, learning from past events, was that some stampede to win this business would outweigh any duty to respect TPS registrations and regulations on e-mail and other digital marketing. This ability to identify terms and risks is something self-regulation should be good at – and it’s something statutory regulators need to learn if they are to do more than sweep up the damage after it has occurred.

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Two problems continue to bother consumers in 2016: clarity of consent; and how far that consent extends to third parties according to the Direct Marketing Commission’s annual report for 2015/16.

Complex supply chains and confusion over consent represented the biggest concerns to consumers in 2016 according to the annual report of the Direct Marketing Commission, the independent body which investigates complaints made about DMA Members.

In 2016 the Direct Marketing Commission recorded 230 complaints between 1 July 2015 and 30 June 2016.  Those unrelated to DMA Members were passed to the relevant authority where possible. The DM Commission tackled 48 separate cases in total: 40 consumer complaints and eight business complaints.

During the year in question, the Commission Board formally investigated six businesses, four of which were found, following a complete adjudication process, to be in breach of the DMA Code.

Of the 48 cases, 35 (73%) related to data, privacy and quality. These cases often related to complex supply chains where insufficient due diligence meant the original consent or lack of consent had been overlooked, in breach of the DMA Code.

DM Commissioner George Kidd said, “In almost every case the Commission considered we found ourselves looking at lengthy supply chains that resulted in messages and calls to people who had made clear they did not want these and had not agreed to them,” he said.

Kidd is keen to remind DMA Members that failure to conduct sufficient due diligence could result in reputational damage for the supplier, agency and brand. “It’s simply not good enough just to say ‘I didn’t know’, ‘I work on a basis of trust’, ‘my suppliers filled in a form saying they would behave’ and ‘it’s not my fault; someone let me down’,” he said.

He said that consistent complaints about, “These issues with sub-contractors, call centres and ill-managed data supply chains prompted the Commission to raise matters with the DMA.

“We are delighted the Association has started a process of audit and review of data broker and lead generation businesses to ensure they have the processes and the practices in place to ensure the consents they secure and the data they supply are clear,” he said.

The DMC Annual Report can be downloaded here at dmc-annual-report-15-16

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