French marketers are recognising that changes in their own country are imminent, says Arnaud Le Lann.

Last month, the largest summit meeting organised by the SNCD (the French direct marketing association) was held. Why was it 

the biggest, why did almost every member attend and why, exceptionally, were non-members also asked to go along? 

Because France is now on the verge of adopting a new privacy law – the first reading of which has now been presented to the French Senate – which will seriously restrict the rights of data users in France; making opt-in the rule for postal data and telemarketing.

During this conference, I presented an overview of the current situation in other EU countries – mentioning by way of example the strict Spanish laws, the new restrictions in Germany, in the Netherlands, etc. While explaining what is happening in our neighbouring markets, I could see the audience gasp and faces turn white . . . then grey . . .

Until now, the French DM industry really hadn’t taken into account recent events in other countries, but now recognises that the few countries that do have less stringent regulations will have to accept increasing control and less freedom of action for direct marketers.

To conclude this conference, decisions were made. Firstly, it was decided to begin lobbying – to influence senators, politicians and decision makers. Will this be the right method? If we look at what happened in Germany, despite a strong and powerful DM industry, we can foresee that, for France, this won’t be enough.

We do have time before the new law is adopted: initially, it has to be discussed, then adopted by the Senate. Then the law will be passed to Parliament for discussion and to a vote again, and then, once approved, adopted by the Government. So, we have roughly 18 months. But we should have acted before, years ago, when countries such as Italy or Denmark decided to adopt stricter rules, to prevent these spreading across Europe.

Loosening laws slightly

Now, liberal countries (such as the UK, France, Belgium, Sweden), are a minority in the EU. The ‘restricted’ ones are more numerous, even though some of them are slightly loosening their laws (Spain is apparently becoming more ‘open’, thanks to the work conducted by Fecemd, the Spanish DMA, and Italy has adopted new rules, which allow more possibilities). 

Ultimately, the 27 EU countries should all end up in the same boat: somewhere in the middle, between the strictest and the mildest regulations . . . but where exactly? Two major markets are now discussing the rules on how data should be collected, used, etc . . . France’s Senate just launched the debate and the UK Government plans to start consulting on changes to the local PECR law this summer.

It is probably too late to fight now. And, at the risk of sounding very pessimistic, the question we should ask is where we are supposed to end up, and what our business will be made of in two, five or ten years . . .

Arnaud Le Lann is managing director of Euroleads, the French partner within the Lists4Europe network. Email: alelann@euroleads.fr