Many practices are still working through their GDPR action plans, but the forthcoming ePrivacy Regulation (ePR) could make the GDPR seem like child’s play in comparison, especially for B2B companies.
The GDPR replaced the Data Protection Act and in the near future the ePR will replace the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations (PECR).
A year ago I spoke to the Information Commissioners Office about the implications the GDPR may have on B2B marketing. They said they were waiting for the new ePR to be finalised, but in general they thought B2B would largely continue as it currently does under the PECR.
The future of marketing?
Fast track 12 months and a different picture seems to be forming. Having watched a recent webinar run by the Chartered Institute of Marketing and read articles by the Direct Marketing Association, two of the UK’s largest marketing professional bodies, B2B marketers could be in for an ‘interesting’ time. The following are some of the B2B marketing points which are currently being discussed as part of the new ePR:
- Consent, or an ‘opt-in’ approach is likely to be needed before marketing can take place between two businesses, as opposed to the ability to ‘opt-out’ scenario we currently have.
- The term ‘End-user’ may be used to describe both ‘Individual’ (B2C) and ‘Corporate’ (B2B) subscribers, clarifying that a ‘natural person’ is being communicated with and therefore their personal data falls under the remit of GDPR. So vicki@momentumforprofessionals.co.uk is the end-user and my data has to be treated as per GDPR. However, info@momentumforprofessionals.co.uk would remain a corporate subscriber, so consent would not be needed to send marketing emails to this address, although if this email address opted out of any marketing communication, the sender would have to stop emailing to that address immediately.
- There may be a maximum time period introduced (current suggestion is 12 months) after which firms would have to get re-consent from clients in order to keep marketing to them (at the moment you can market to existing clients until they ask you to stop).
- Telemarketing rules may stay the same, i.e. before embarking on any calls firms should check their phone lists against the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS) registers and not contact any numbers which are registered on either.
- However, it is likely that using an ‘Unknown Caller ID’ phone line, i.e. which doesn’t give your phone number to the recipient, will not be allowed post ePR.
- Consent around the use of Cookies is likely to be tightened up, so in future it may be harder to identify specific people who have visited your website unless they have given their full consent.
- The current surge in ‘Cookie walls’ or ‘Cookie Banners’, which only give users the option of consenting or not using the website, i.e. they don’t also give an option of, ‘no you can’t use my data, but I still want to use your website’, are likely to be banned.
Timeframe
The draft form of the ePR is currently being discussed in Europe. It is unlikely that we will see the final regulations published until spring 2019 at the earliest. Then, as with GDPR, there is likely to be a transitional period of 12 months or more. So whilst there’s no immediate panic on changing your marketing processes, you need to keep any eye open for any ePR related updates and how these will have an impact on the way you try to attract new business or communicate with existing clients in the future.