Category Essential Law for Marketers

April 28, 2017,  Essential Law for Marketers, Legal update, News, Social marketing practice  No comments

The much-criticised Digital Economy Bill has just received the Royal Assent (Thursday 27 April 2017) and is now law in the UK.

The British Government claims that the new Act will do the following:

• empower consumers and ensure everyone has access to broadband wherever they live, including rural areas which has suffered from a lack of broadband connectivity
• build a better infrastructure fit for the digital future
• enable better public services using digital technologies
• provide important protections for citizens from spam email and nuisance calls and protect children from online pornography.

On this last point, the NSPCC has already called on the British Government to regulate...

April 7, 2016,  Essential Law for Marketers, EU General Data Protection Regulation, European Commission, European Parliament  No comments

The Council of Ministers has just published its FINAL TEXT of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and its statement for reasons for the biggest shake up in data protection and privacy for nearly two decades.

In an official communique, dated 4 April 2016, the General Secretariat of the Council said:

At its 3445th meeting on 12 February 2016, the Economic and Financial Affairs Council reached political agreement on the Council’s position at first reading on the (GDPR)...

December 30, 2014,  Essential Law for Marketers, News  No comments

Current law

Under EU Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), organisations and companies are prohibited from transmitting or instigating the transmission of unsolicited electronic communications to consumers for the purposes of direct marketing unless the person receiving those communications has provided prior consent for the messages to be sent.

Companies also mustn’t disguise or conceal their identity in the messages or use invalid addresses where recipients of the messages would send responses to ask for the messages to stop being sent.

Marketers can send direct marketing via electronic mail to consumers if they have “obtained the contact details of th...

October 17, 2014,  Brand marketing, Essential Law for Marketers, News  No comments

Last week the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) announced relaxed regulations for advertising e-cigarettes through television broadcasting.

From November 2014, e-cig brand owners (these tend to be the big tobacco manufacturers) will be able to use TV advertising having previously been banned from doing so.

The introduction of the new rules has largely been welcomed with many finding previous rules unclear and inconsistent.

Ant-tobacco charity Ash declared it was satisfied with this move as such products are deemed to be nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) but the science on whether such strategies actually lead to a significant decrease in the number of smokers is still ...

October 9, 2014,  Essential Law for Marketers, Legal update  No comments

There’s evidence that most major companies haven’t as yet appreciated the impact that this  European-wide Regulation will have on their business and could be caught out unless they take action sooner rather than later.

The aim of the new European Data Protection Regulation is to harmonise the current data protection laws in place across the EU member states. The fact that it is a “regulation” instead of a “directive” means it will be directly applicable to all EU member states without a need for national implementing legislation.

From the first half of 2015, all EU Governments will have two years from which to ensure that the EU General Data Protection Regulation is ...

July 18, 2014,  Essential Law for Marketers, Guru in a Bottle, News  No comments

The recent out of court deal between US authorities and the French bank BNP Paribas have raised eyebrows within the global banking community about whether the punishment for providing banking facilities to the totalitarian regime in Sudan is proportionate with the billions of US dollars that the bank must now pay out to settle the matter – equivalent to about a year’s profit.

Perhaps not one of its finest hours, the French bank has been forced to admit helping the Sudanese Government sell oil, clearing proceeds through New York in direct violation of US sanctions.

At that time, Sudanese Government-backed militias in the region of Darfur were massacring innocent civilians ...

June 20, 2014,  Essential Law for Marketers, Guru in a Bottle, Public Relations practice  One comment

It was Winston Churchill, one of the greatest statesmen that ever lived, who said “In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.”

Given the acrimonious legal battles that the PRCA has been having with the NLA and the subsequent decision at the Court of Justice of the European Union, I think it’s time for both sides to do well in remembering those words.

Let’s face it.

Both sides must build a new bridge – a better, more robust bridge – where the focus is on collaboration rather than conflict...

June 5, 2014,  Essential Law for Marketers, Guru in a Bottle, News, Public Relations practice  One comment

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Luxembourg has affirmed the legal position that internet users have the right to browse news sites without the threat of infringing copyright law.

The argument, put forward by the Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) that represents the interests of media owners, was that even temporary electronic copies made on an individual’s computer required a licence and a licence fee to be paid and this could have cost the PR industry many millions in licensing fees had the ruling of CJEU clarified the legal position today.

The CJEU accepted all of the legal arguments of the PRCA, the largest professional body representing the interests...

May 28, 2014,  Essential Law for Marketers, Guru in a Bottle, Legal update  No comments

All customer contracts for the supply of goods and services need to be reviewed as a matter of urgency as on the 13 June the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 comes into force.

These new Regulations replace the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling Regulations) 2000 and the Cancellation of Contracts made in a Consumers Home or Place of Work Regulations 2008 (known as the Doorstep Selling Regulations).

The new Regulations implement the EU Consumer Rights Directive that brings together a number of disparate existing rules...

May 21, 2014,  Essential Law for Marketers, Guru in a Bottle, News  No comments

In a landmark ruling, a German court has ruled Jesus Christ doesn’t hold copyright for works published in his name.

Frankfurt’s higher regional court held that the late American psychologist Helen Schucman, and not Jesus Christ, should be regarded the legal author of a book that Schucman claimed had been dictated to her by Jesus in a series of “waking dreams”.

Germany’s New Christian Endeavour Academy, a registered association, last year published extracts from A Course in Miracles, originally published in 1975, on its website...