Spam: Legal best


practice Nick James talks to Nigel Miller


Nigel Miller, Partner at Fox Williams LLP talks to Nick James about the difference between emails which are lawful – email marketing– spam or unlawful emails.


NJ: Probably the biggest worry to people starting out in email marketing is the Data Protection Act and the Privacy Regulations, how does a marketer ensure that they are complying with this? NM: A lot of people don’t really understand what the Data Protection Act actually means. It’s been used as a scapegoat for many things. I think many of you will remember a British Gas case, where British Gas cut off the gas to a very elderly couple who were living alone and needed some care, and they didn’t inform the local authority because they said Data Protection Act rules prevented them from doing so. And as a result, the local authority wasn’t made aware that this couple no longer had heating and unfortunately, they perished.


Having said all that, it is a piece of legislation and it is an obligation to comply with it. It is on the statute books but it’s one of those pieces of legislation – and as a lawyer it’s quite difficult to say this – that it’s very difficult to comply 100% with. Even the Information Commissioner recognises that this is a piece of law that you can’t always comply completely with.


HIT ME! HOW TO GET YOUR BUSINESS TO PUNCH ITS WEIGHT 0NLINE 49


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