The GDPR protects most European citizens from unwanted electronic solicitation. The law attempts to put the onus on the advertiser or company to gather the express consent of the consumer to receive their solicitation. A couple of highlights of the law taking effect May 25. 2018.
- Penalties Under GDPR organizations in breach of the regulation can be fined up to 4% of annual global turnover or €20 Million (whichever is greater).
- Consent Consent must be clear and distinguishable from other matters and provided in an intelligible and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language. It must be as easy to withdraw consent as it is to give it.
- Right to be Forgotten Also known as Data Erasure, the right to be forgotten entitles the data subject to have the data controller erase his/her personal data, cease further dissemination of the data, and potentially have third parties halt processing of the data.
- Data Portability GDPR introduces data portability – the right for a data subject to receive the personal data concerning them, which they have previously provided in a ‘commonly use and machine readable format‘ and have the right to transmit that data to another controller.
Sales people will need to follow the letter of the law when soliciting European citizens but there are some nuances that make selling and marketing different pursuits.
- Picking up the phone and calling a business doesn’t fall under GDPR – so it is back to smiling and dialing in EMEA. Many customers are taking different measures like calling or event based approaches. Maybe direct dials will help.
- The law protects consumers, not employees per-se. This means a consumer’s opted-in consent follows them to their next employer so staying in touch with your old customers is a must.
- The law also doesn’t protect non European citizens employed by European companies. As an example, if you are an American citizen of Volkswagen living in Tennessee then you are not subject to the law.
If you are unsure who inside of your database are subject to this new law, RampedUp offers an Account-Based Readiness Report revealing the contacts that need opted in consent. Please be mindful that consent cannot be sold from a data vendor to customer – so the responsibility of gaining consent is on you.