Guidance on direct marketing using electronic mail

About this guidance

This guidance explains electronic mail marketing under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR) in detail. It complements the brief guidance on electronic mail marketing in the Guide to PECR.

If you haven’t yet read the brief guidance, read that first. It introduces this topic and sets out the key points you need to know.

Read this detailed guidance if you have questions not answered in the brief guidance or if you need more information to help you apply the rules in practice. This guidance is aimed at data protection officers (DPOs) and those with specific data protection responsibilities in larger organisations.

Contents

Key concepts for direct marketing using electronic mail

• What is direct marketing?
• What is electronic mail?
• What is the difference between solicited and unsolicited marketing?
• What is a subscriber?
• Do we need to know the name of the person we want to send the electronic mail marketing to for PECR to apply?

How do we comply with the PECR electronic mail marketing rules?

• Who must comply?
• Which rules apply to which subscriber type?
• What is consent and how do we use it?
• What are the soft opt-ins and who can use them?
• How do we use the products and services soft opt-in?
• How do we use the charitable purposes soft opt-in?
• What happens if both soft opt-ins apply?
• Can we use bought-in lists?
• Can we use publicly available contact details to send electronic mail marketing?
• Can we ask people to pass on our electronic mail marketing?
• Can people change their mind about our electronic mail marketing?

What else do we need to consider?

• What is the relationship between PECR and the data protection rules?
• How does ‘legitimate interests’ work for the soft opt-ins?
• Are tracking pixels covered by the electronic mail marketing rules?