WMA Launches Anti-Spam Initiatives
The Wireless Marketing Association (WMA) has announced a series of “aggressive” initiatives to prevent mobile phone users from receiving unwanted SMS adverts.
The WMA has warned that British advertisers found spamming without permission will be banned from using SMS facilities and will be added to a mobile marketing blacklist. The body has launched an online complaints service to encourage consumers to report cases of unwanted SMS spamming and plans to collaborate with UK mobile network operators to investigate any complaints they receive from subscribers.
The EU recently passed a motion requiring advertisers to obtain prior consent from consumers before sending them commercial messages via SMS. However, the prospect of a two-year delay before the legislation becomes law has prompted the WMA to start targeting unsolicited text messaging immediately.
Steve Wunker, chairman of the WMA, said: “The EU directive recognises the enormous power of SMS advertising. This power can be abused and it is important that consumers continue to see it as a valuable innovation. We hope that legislation will give a leading role to industry self-regulation, given that definitions of ‘prior consent’ must be kept flexible in an industry that moves as fast as this one.”
Global mobile marketing body, the Wireless Advertising Association, unveiled a series of creative standards and measurement definitions intended to regulate wireless advertising in May (see WAA Draws Up Guidelines To Regulate SMS Advertising) and the Advertising Standards Authority recently extended its remit to SMS advertising, upholding its first complaint against a commercial text message (see ASA Upholds First SMS Ad Complaint).
The Mobile Data Association predicts that the number of text messages being sent world-wide each month will reach 20 billion by the end of next year (see Text Messaging Breaks Billion Barrier), and a growing number of advertisers are poised to take advantage of the rapidly growing medium.
WMA: 020 7074 7060 www.wirelessmarketing.org.uk
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