The European Commission publishes its proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on Privacy and Electronic Communications (the “Draft Regulation”). The Draft Regulation is to be directly applicable in all European Member States and replace the ePrivacy Directive 2002/58/EC.

It expands the scope of the ePrivacy Directive – being applicable, amongst many other things, to internet-based voice and instant messaging and broadening its scope to be applicable to the content and metadata that service providers obtain through their electronic communications.

From a charity and not-for-profit’s perspective, it has the unfortunate effect of preventing direct electronic marketing without the customer’s prior consent. Commercial counterparts, however, are able to get around this provision through an exemption that allows for such marketing where that customer’s contact details have been obtained by way of a prior sale of a similar product or service and the customer was given the opportunity to object to further electronic marketing, but has not.

This puts charities and not-for-profits at a distinct disadvantage compared to their commercial counterparts.

See Draft Regulation here.