EU Votes For Stricter Data Protection

The Direct Marketing Association has warned that ‘alarm bells should be ringing in the boardroom of every business that’s involved with one-to-one communications’ after MEPs overwhelmingly voted in favour of the less business-friendly version of the EU data protection reforms.

The move, which is a major setback for the UK’s fight against the draconian measures included in the EU Data Protection Regulation, saw 621 votes in favour, 10 against and 22 abstentions.

Measures in the reforms include companies gaining explicit consent to use data for marketing purposes, the so-called ‘right to be forgotten’, and fines of up to 5% of global turnover for firms which abuse customer data.

Chris Combemale, DMA Executive Director commented: “We’ve been leading the industry’s campaign for fair and balanced data legislation, so it’s extremely disappointing that the European Parliament has voted for a less business-friendly version of the proposed regulation. While this is by no means a done-deal, this vote should be ringing alarm bells in the boardroom of every business that’s involved with one-to-one communications.

“For its part, the DMA will continue to lead the industry’s push for a more business-friendly version of the regulation. However, whatever the outcome one thing is certain: brands will soon have to work harder than ever before to communicate one-to-one with consumers and must offer compelling reasons to become engaged and to share their personal information. Only the companies who get to grips with how the data protection landscape is changing will be successful in the future.”