Nowadays, emailing is a widely acclaimed tool in the field of marketing, a double-edged force that requires a minimum of knowledge in terms of law. Why ? Because it directly concerns the personal data of its recipients. Before sending your emails, it is therefore necessary to know the bases of legislation on the subject, it comes from your legal responsibility as an organization.
Who takes care of data protection in the computer domain?
In the field of digital, it is mainly the CNIL (National Commission for Informatics and Freedoms), a French organization that deals with the protection of personal data and ensures that no reaches are reached. human rights, individual freedoms and the privacy of individuals.
The CNIL will follow the professionals so that their actions are consistent with the legislation in force, and accompany the individuals for the protection of their personal data, and are able to exercise their rights as it should.
Emailing and Law
General rules
In each email sent, the sender, so the company, must necessarily clarify his identity in a clear and immediate way. It must also always allow the recipient to refuse a future sending, by putting for example at his disposal a unregistering link or a checkbox at the beginning or at the end of the email. Finally, the object must be related to the content of the email.
Special rules: the case of B2C (individual)
A commercial email must never be sent without having previously obtained the explicit consent of the recipient. This rule is imperative, unless the recipient is already a customer of the company and that the shipment concerns products / services similar to those it would have already purchased before.
At the time of collecting the email address, you must inform the person that his address will be used in particular for sending commercial offers. You must also allow it clearly, easily and free of charge to oppose this use.
In short: Always ask for the recipient’s agreement of your emails. For this, the simplest is to use the opt-in or the opt-out, the ideal being the double opt-in.
Consent must in no case be presumed or supposed, but indicated in a clear and precise manner.
Special rules: the case of B2B (professionals)
As part of a shipment of email in B2B, the object of the message must necessarily have a relationship with the recipient’s professional activity. As for the B2C, the individual must be informed at the time of the collection of the fact that his address will be used for prospecting and must have the opportunity to oppose it simply.
Attention, it should be known that if the email is sent to a credential address as “contact@entreprise.com”, obtaining consent and the opposition option do not prevail, because this type of address is considered as that of a legal person.
Good to know
- For French legislation, any e-mail address is considered a personal data.
- The use of pre-checked boxes to obtain the consent of Internet users is not legal in France.
- Avoid at all costs the Databases purchased or rented. Also know that it is forbidden to send emails to addresses recovered on other sites, on forums or directories, because this is considered unfair collection.
In case of non-compliance with established laws and rules, the company exposes itself to criminal sanctions as well as fines of 750 € per message sent. Also know that fines up to € 300,000 can be addressed by the CNIL in the case of a company sending emails to natural persons without having obtained their prior consent.
