UK: Implementation of Telecoms Directive

The Directive on Privacy in Telecomms will become effective from 24 October this year; the Department of Trade and Industry is currently considering how to implement the Directive, which will mean telemarketing companies have to comply with extra legal requirements concerning targeting. The Directive is aimed at permitting members of the public to indicate that they do not want their data released for direct marketing purposes. Furthermore, unsolicited faxes sent to individual consumers will become illegal. The new regulations will also make it compulsory for telemarketing operations to use a telephone preference service to check whether an individual has requested to be screened out from such services. On the basis of recent leaks it appears that the UK Government wants to see the Telephone Preference Service set up and administered by the Direct Marketing Association and placed on a quasi-statutory basis, so that compliance with it by companies would become mandatory and breaches would be dealt with by the Direct Marketing Authority.