It follows from Section 10 of the Marketing Control Act that a trader may not contact anyone using electronic mail, an automatic dialing system or fax for the purpose of direct marketing unless the person concerned has given their prior consent.
The Consumer Ombudsman recently reported the company Café Venedig ApS to the police for violating the ban on spam in section 10 of the Danish Marketing Practices Act in connection with competitions on social media.
Read the Consumer Ombudsman's statement here: "Requirement to tag others in social media contests is illegal"
Contests on Facebook, Instagram and other social media have become very popular, and many companies use these social media contests in their marketing. However, companies must be aware of the spam ban in the Danish Marketing Practices Act, which means, among other things, that it must not be a condition for participation in the competition that participants tag others in the post.
Read the rules for the spam ban here: "Spam ban - Guidance from the Consumer Ombudsman"
A tag triggers the now familiar notification to the recipient, and this notification directs the tagged user to the company's competition. If the company requires participants in the competition to tag others, the notifications are sent on behalf of the company.
This would violate the Marketing Control Act's prohibition against spam if the tagged person has not consented to marketing from the company and thus to receive the notification, cf. section 10 of the Marketing Control Act.
Everyone has the right to decide for themselves who they want to receive advertising from, and a company may therefore not, for example, send notifications on social media without first obtaining the recipient's consent. Companies are also not allowed to get others to do so on their behalf.
CLEMENS' privacy expertsare always available if you have any questions about the article or if your company needs help creating guidelines for social media marketing etc.
