| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Legality of sending unsolicited marketing e-mails Thread poster: Sarah Port
|
|---|
Sarah Port 
Local time: 07:18
German to English
+ ...
I am starting a new business marketing campaign and one of my intended strategies is to send e-mails offering my translation services to a list of carefully researched companies in my specialist fields who may be interested in my services.
However, my fear is that this could be construed as spam which I believe is now illegal in a certain number of EU countries. The countries I would be targeting would be the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Austria.
<... See more I am starting a new business marketing campaign and one of my intended strategies is to send e-mails offering my translation services to a list of carefully researched companies in my specialist fields who may be interested in my services.
However, my fear is that this could be construed as spam which I believe is now illegal in a certain number of EU countries. The countries I would be targeting would be the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Austria.
Does anyone have any knowledge/insights on the legality of this?
Many thanks in advance. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Woodstock (X)
Germany
Local time: 08:18
German to English
+ ...
| Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 07:18
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
| spam = mass, identical, non-personal | Sep 23, 2012 |
If you're carefully selecting the recipients of these emails, you'll presumably be taking the trouble to address them personally and sending an email that may be similar to others but tailored to their particular circumstances. In that case, I don't think they'll be regarded as spam. I don't know about the other countries, but there would certainly be no problem in France.
| | | | | Illegal in Germany | Sep 23, 2012 |
Hi Sarah,
It is actually illegal in Germany, but everyone still does it. I think if you're polite to people and end the call quickly when it's obvious that they're not interested, nobody's too concerned.
Good luck with the hunting,
Ian
| | |
|
|
|
Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 08:18
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| Unfortunately, you're right | Sep 23, 2012 |
Sarah Port wrote:
However, my fear is that this could be construed as spam which I believe is now illegal in a certain number of EU countries. The countries I would be targeting would be the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Austria.
It is my understanding that you are no longer allowed to advertise your services via e-mail to either private persons or businesses, unless you have specific permission from them to do so. What exactly "specific permission" is is unclear, but European law tends to take a view that favours the recipient.
However, I would think that if a company specifically invites contact from other businesses on its web site, then you should be safe. Note that the web site must invite you as a *service provider*, and not simply as a potential client (because you're trying to sell to them, not buy from them).
Translator agencies' "careers/jobs" pages often invite service providers to contact them, so as long as you mention the URL of the page that invites the solicitation, the e-mail should not be construed as unsolicited.
I'm not sure if asking for permission by e-mail is allowed, but asking for permission by phone certainly is allowed (as far as I know). Asking permission by snail mail is also allowed, but you're likely to get a much lower response rate.
So, if you wish to send e-mails to companies, phone them up via Skype and ask for permission, and make a recording of the phone conversation (if that is legal in your country) and/or make a note of the date/time of the phone call and the person you spoke to, so that you can prove later that you did get permission to send the e-mail. You may also wish to mention the phone call (and the name of the person you spoke to) in the small print of your e-mail. Odds are the secretary you get on the line won't know that she is supposed to say "no" when you ask for permission.
Make sure your e-mail complies with other requirements also, e.g. idenfity yourself by name, tell the recipient where you got his mail address, and why he is receiving your mail, and what he can do to be removed from your mailing list.
Sheila Wilson wrote:
You'll presumably be taking the trouble to address them personally and sending an email that may be similar to others but tailored to their particular circumstances. In that case, I don't think they'll be regarded as spam.
It is my understanding that EU law regards any unsolicited commercial or ideological e-mail as spam, even if it is a single e-mail, and even if it is addressed to a very specific person. Not all countries have implemented all of it, and some countries are stricter than others (some EU countries allow spam to be send to businesses but not to private individuals).
Samuel (IANAL)
| | | | | Illegal in Spain | Sep 24, 2012 |
It is illegal also in Spain. However, normally in Spain your email would be considered spam if you send it to a number of people in one go. I think that it would not be spam if you personalise your email for one particular company each time.
| | | | | legal by letter in Germany | Sep 24, 2012 |
I agree 100% with Ian regarding the situation with e-mails in Germany: It is certainly both illegal and fairly common practice. I think there is little chance of violations being reported, but the penalties seem to be very substantial, if you do get reported. And the e-mail certainly does not have to be spam in any ordinary sense of the word in order to be illegal.
What is always permitted here is advertising sent to businesses by mail (real letters) or sending material by e-mail if... See more I agree 100% with Ian regarding the situation with e-mails in Germany: It is certainly both illegal and fairly common practice. I think there is little chance of violations being reported, but the penalties seem to be very substantial, if you do get reported. And the e-mail certainly does not have to be spam in any ordinary sense of the word in order to be illegal.
What is always permitted here is advertising sent to businesses by mail (real letters) or sending material by e-mail if you have good reason to assume that the business is very likely to be interested in your services.
If you are sending material to agencies, search their website for an invitation to freelancers to send information regarding their services and then make a screenshot of it. Advertising sent to potential direct clients by e-mail is very unlikely to ever qualify as permissible (this needs to be done with a real letter). ▲ Collapse
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 07:18
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Samuel Murray wrote: Make sure your e-mail complies with other requirements also, e.g. idenfity yourself by name, tell the recipient where you got his mail address, and why he is receiving your mail, and what he can do to be removed from your mailing list. Sheila Wilson wrote:
You'll presumably be taking the trouble to address them personally and sending an email that may be similar to others but tailored to their particular circumstances. In that case, I don't think they'll be regarded as spam. It is my understanding that EU law regards any unsolicited commercial or ideological e-mail as spam, even if it is a single e-mail, and even if it is addressed to a very specific person. Not all countries have implemented all of it, and some countries are stricter than others (some EU countries allow spam to be send to businesses but not to private individuals).
I can understand perfectly why it should be illegal to send millions of emails about playing poker or buying viagra (not that that seems to stop them), but email is how people communicate these days, and if you can't communicate with potential clients, how can they ever stop being potential? The world's gone mad, IMHO.
How about unsolicited job applications - the ones from people who are looking for an employment contract? Are they illegal nowadays, unless sent by snail mail? AFAIK, HR departments would rather receive applications by email because then they only have to click on 'reply', and they have the CV readily available for the future. What good is two bits of paper in an otherwise paperless office?
Anyway, my advice to Sarah is still to send her highly-personalised emails and asking forgiveness on bended knees if she's upset them. Surely the courts have got better things to do with their time.
| | |
|
|
|
Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 08:18
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Sheila Wilson wrote:
I can understand perfectly why it should be illegal to send millions of emails about playing poker or buying viagra (not that that seems to stop them), but email is how people communicate these days, and if you can't communicate with potential clients, how can they ever stop being potential?
From a user's perspective, the fact that the viagara advert was sent to millions of people is not relevant. The user receives only one of those e-mails. So from an annoyance point of view there is no difference between a viagara advert and a translation advert. If you did not specify that you wish to receive viagara adverts or translation adverts, the EU opinion is that you should not have to deal with it. That is why all mailing lists in the EU are supposed to be opt-in, not opt-out (as in the US).
| | | | | A recent case | Sep 24, 2012 |
Sheila Wilson wrote: I can understand perfectly why it should be illegal to send millions of emails about playing poker or buying viagra (not that that seems to stop them), but email is how people communicate these days, and if you can't communicate with potential clients, how can they ever stop being potential? The world's gone mad, IMHO.
I agree with you to some extent, but a recent case I heard of proves that in the case of Spain you should be rather careful: a sales representative gathered a bunch of business cards at a trade show, and sent the same email to all addresses. One of the addressees complained at the Agencia de Protección de Datos and the sales representative was fined with a huge sum, well worth his income of a whole year. I don't know whether he had the resources to fight the fine, since the Agencia de Protección de Datos is entitled to grab the money from your bank with no previous court ruling if you do not pay in due time.
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 07:18
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
| Did I ask for viagra? | Sep 24, 2012 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
If you did not specify that you wish to receive viagara adverts or translation adverts, the EU opinion is that you should not have to deal with it. That is why all mailing lists in the EU are supposed to be opt-in, not opt-out (as in the US).
I'm damn sure I didn't ask for those viagra to enlarge my penis!
What I'm still unclear about though is the definition of 'mailing list' and 'advert' and whether the way you're using them really apply to what are in effect one-off emails to selected companies proposing a collaboration. Isn't the whole idea of an agency that they outsource work to those who can do it? Are they going to complain because translators put themselves forward for the work? I can understand that a less-than-perfect email and CV is going to be ignored, and that they're going to be annoyed if they clearly state their languages/sectors and there's no correlation, but would they really raise a complaint if they receive a well-written email from someone who's proposing exactly the services they need? I just can't see it happening.
Of course, if you were going to follow up with monthly newsletters to "Dear Reader", then I'd say that you were using a mailing list, and spamming. And I certainly appreciate the fact that often nowadays if I don't tick the box I don't get spammed.
Edited to say: hadn't refreshed in a long time, Tomás, so didn't see your post. But here again, you're talking of identical emails. Would he have broken laws if he'd personalised them?
[Edited at 2012-09-24 17:54 GMT]
| | | | | Wrong statement | Sep 24, 2012 |
Sheila Wilson wrote:
I can understand that a less-than-perfect email and CV is going to be ignored, and that they're going to be annoyed if they clearly state their languages/sectors and there's no correlation, but would they really raise a complaint if they receive a well-written email from someone who's proposing exactly the services they need?
Unfortunately this is most often not the case: we in the office receive very many CVs every year... when we very rarely outsource and have never (or not over the last ten years) asked for CVs. I am sure the situation is comparable in many other companies and agencies.
| | |
|
|
|
Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 08:18
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| Assumptions about the recipient | Sep 24, 2012 |
Sheila Wilson wrote:
What I'm still unclear about though is the definition of 'mailing list' and 'advert' and whether the way you're using them really apply to what are in effect one-off emails to selected companies proposing a collaboration.
The term "mailing list" in this context means a list of e-mail addresses to which you send the unsolicited e-mails. Whether this list is built into your mail program's address book or in a special spam program or in an actual list in a text file is not relevant. The length of the list is not relevant either.
The term "advert" was used by some in this thread, but that is often not the term used in the spam laws. The spam laws speak about "unsolicited e-mail" of a commercial, charitable or ideological nature. If the e-mail was not expected or requested, or if there isn't a direct previous [commercial] relationship, the e-mail is considered unsolicited. End of story.
Isn't the whole idea of an agency that they outsource work to those who can do it? Are they going to complain because translators put themselves forward for the work?
You are making assumptions about how the agency operates and how they would wish to be approached. For all you know, the agency has a specific standard recruitment procedure that does not include reading random e-mails from translators. If that is so, then having to spend time reading and deleting e-mails from hopefuls would be just as annoying as those viagara adverts.
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
A recent case I heard of proves that in the case of Spain you should be rather careful: a sales representative gathered a bunch of business cards at a trade show, and sent the same email to all addresses. One of the addressees complained at the Agencia de Protección de Datos and the sales representative was fined with a huge sum, well worth his income of a whole year.
I wonder how old that story is. Could it be the same story as the one from 2004?
http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?id=1607&s=latestnews
In the 2004 case, the law firm sent a special offer to everyone on their address list. The complaintant's only previous communication with the law firm was to have asked for fee information, in person, and having left her business card. The complaintant replied to the special offer, requesting to be removed from the mailing list, but the law firm ignored this request and sent a second commercial e-mail some time later. At least two rules were broken by the law firm -- firstly, the recipient did not consent to receiving e-mails about special offers unrelated to her original fee query, and secondly, the law firm ignored the request to be removed from the mailing list. The law firm was fined EUR 31 000.
The law firm tried to explain why they did not act on the unsubscribe request -- they say that of the 2500 e-mails, over 1000 returned as undeliverable, and so they proceeded to delete all incoming e-mails with that particular subject line, without reading any of them... and this must have included that e-mail from the complaintant asking to be removed from the list. However likely this explanation may seem, it was ruled to be no valid excuse.
http://www.elconfidencial.com/economia/noticia.asp?id=4088
The law firm also claimed that the complaintant's previous communication with them constituted a previous business relationship, but the spam authority ruled that the complaintant's previous contact with the law firm (a fee query) was unrelated to the nature of the e-mail (it advertised a post-graduate course), so you can't call it a previous business relationship.
This case highlights something very important: you must have detailled "unsubscribe" instructions in the e-mail, and you must act upon all unsubscribe requests. Another point is that the e-mail must be related to a specific request to be sent an e-mail, or to directly related previous business.
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 07:18
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
| I withdraw my advice to Sarah in that case | Sep 25, 2012 |
I'm obviously way out of date here but thankfully I never send this sort of email as I'm fortunate enough not to need to.
I guess the only thing to do is find those agencies that interest you and then discover if they want to hear from you. You can use the directories here to identify those companies who have a ProZ.com presence and who work in exactly the languages and sectors as you (and have a good BB record, of c... See more I'm obviously way out of date here but thankfully I never send this sort of email as I'm fortunate enough not to need to.
I guess the only thing to do is find those agencies that interest you and then discover if they want to hear from you. You can use the directories here to identify those companies who have a ProZ.com presence and who work in exactly the languages and sectors as you (and have a good BB record, of course) and link to their websites from there. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Not that case | Sep 25, 2012 |
Samuel Murray wrote: Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
A recent case I heard of proves that in the case of Spain you should be rather careful: a sales representative gathered a bunch of business cards at a trade show, and sent the same email to all addresses. One of the addressees complained at the Agencia de Protección de Datos and the sales representative was fined with a huge sum, well worth his income of a whole year. I wonder how old that story is. Could it be the same story as the one from 2004? http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?id=1607&s=latestnews
No, not that one. It was this one (sorry, in Spanish):
http://www.internautas.org/spam/txt/4373.html
This was a case about a sales person sending the same email to 13 (thirteen) people who had given him their business card at the SIMO, an IT trade show in Madrid.
From what I read in the piece of news (this is something I did not know), the Audiencia Nacional (which is a type of supreme court here) cancelled the fine since the people who had given their business cards gave their tacit consent to receive business proposals.
So luckily the sales person escaped the fine... but had to escalate the matter over a period of two years to a supreme court to recover his money from the sequestration by the Agencia de Protección de Datos. Our data protection law really stinks if the Agencia can take your money and run, leaving you with the option of spending your money and health to fight for your rights up to a supreme court.
[Edited at 2012-09-25 09:33 GMT]
| | | | | Pages in topic: [1 2] > | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Legality of sending unsolicited marketing e-mails | TM-Town | Manage your TMs and Terms ... and boost your translation business
Are you ready for something fresh in the industry? TM-Town is a unique new site for you -- the freelance translator -- to store, manage and share translation memories (TMs) and glossaries...and potentially meet new clients on the basis of your prior work.
More info » |
| | Protemos translation business management system | Create your account in minutes, and start working! 3-month trial for agencies, and free for freelancers!
The system lets you keep client/vendor database, with contacts and rates, manage projects and assign jobs to vendors, issue invoices, track payments, store and manage project files, generate business reports on turnover profit per client/manager etc.
More info » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
Translation news
