Legislation Resources for emailing from US to international countries.

[Nate_Oosterhous]

Hello Everyone!

I am looking for some good resources on legislation/anti-spam laws/privacy laws surrounding Marketo's functionality (Web Activity Tracking, Sending Emails, everything.....) when it's use involves all countries.  I am looking to gain insight into:

1. Email marketing/ANTI-SPAM legislation for emailing from US to international countries and also emailing from international countries to the US
2. Privacy Laws for using Marketo internationally
3. Etc

Could anyone point me in the right direction?  Any resources would be great.

[Josh_Hill13]

• Suggest you ask your Legal Counsel regarding privacy policies. Your contract with Marketo covers various things.
• EU - usually single opt in, but Germany is Double, so make it all double opt in.
• CASL - review below and create use cases.
• Mailchimp used to have a decent suggestion list.

Overall, suggest that all is double opt in and you record the person's log data carefully to prove opt in, regardless of Country.

If you buy lists, then  be super aware of which country the lead is from. Only US is definitely opt out still. UK kind of...

http://www.slideshare.net/marketo/getting-ready-for-the-canadian-antispam-legislation?ref=https://ww...

http://www.slideshare.net/marketo/eprivacy-law-marketers-need-to-know?ref=https://uk.marketo.com/

http://blog.marketo.com/2014/03/stay-in-compliance-what-marketers-need-to-know-about-eprivacy-law.ht...

https://www.marketo.com/cheat-sheets/a-marketers-guide-to-canadas-anti-spam-legislation-casl/

[Nate_Oosterhous]

1. What is your interpretation of the Germany double-opt in?  What does that look like?
2. In the EU (including Germany) can you gain implied consent through someone filling out a web form to send email marketing communications to?

[Josh_Hill13]

1. Germany requires Double Opt in. there is no interpretation.

2. I suggest asking a lawyer. I had a doc somewhere that a lawyer summarized the situations, but it's easier to treat them as the same. I would be careful about implied consent beyond things like Operational emails or a salesperson responding to an inquiry.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

HI all,

in addition to the country legislations, there is few other things to take into account:

• Location of your offices. Therocally, the applicable law is not the location of the lead but the location of the office of the web site editor
• Culture of the countries / expectations of the web visitors. German people will expect a site in german to comply with double opt-in, while they would accept simple opt-in from an english speaking web site
• Business type: legislations are often different for B2C and B2B.

Unlike Josh, I tend to think that it is worth trying to differentiate things because the double opt-in is so restrictive, while some countries, such as France, will tolerate Opt-out for B2B.

-Greg.

[Nate_Oosterhous]

Hi Greg and Josh.  Thank you for your input.  I have a couple more questions:

1. What is a double opt-in?  What does that mean and what is an example of how that functions?
2. How do you properly deal with forms in the EU?  For example what do the forms need?  Do you need consent for cookies that tie personal information and cookies that apply to the behavioral data?  What about UTM parameters?

[Grégoire_Miche2]

HI Nate,

• Double opt-in:
  • The person fills out a form with her email address and checks the box "I wish to receive..." (or whatever label you give it).
  • On form fill out, the person is sent an email requesting to confirm the subscription by clicking a "confirm subscription" CTA in the email. That CTA links to a "subscription confirmed" landing page. In Marketo, you detect the click on the link and you validate the Opt-in / Un check the "unsubscribe" field.
  • This means that all your forms have to have a "opt-in" check box in the first place.
• Simple Opt-In:
  • Starts the same as the double opt-in, but you do not need to send a confirmation email and wait for the Click on the CTA.
  • As soon as the person has filled out the form with the opt-in box checked, they are good to go.
• Opt-Out:
  • You do not need an opt-in field on the forms and all leads are "unsubscribe = false" by default. But you absolutely have to have an unsubscribe link in all you non operational emails.

-Greg

[Josh_Hill13]

I believe all countries require at least an unsubscribe link and address of the sender.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Josh,

Yes, I believe so too

-Greg

[Josh_Hill13]

Ah, found my notes or links

What anti-spam laws should I be following? - Deliverability - Knowledge Base - CakeMail 3.5

• http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=c463e704-d950-4450-a5bc-0fcdd464b592
• http://www.marketo.com/webinars/getting-ready-for-the-canadian-anti-spam-legislation
• https://www.mediafire.com/?zp8djdz69dg4672

I agree that Cultural norms should be considered in all marketing.

If you have used Mailchimp, you know they do Double Opt In automatically.

You should also consider the Do Not Call list in your country. The UK is about to become more restrictive for businesses and the US has some interesting rules on Do Not Call and cold calling mobiles.

While I did  find my master table of EU email permissions, I am not going to share it because I believe it may become out of date soon and I know people will use it instead of asking a lawyer. I would treat all EU countries as double opt in, even if they are technically not.