Direct marketing continues to grow in importance as a business practice across a wide range of sectors. Such communications do, however, often entail processing of personal data and must therefore comply with applicable data protection rules.
Is consent (which can prove cumbersome to rely on in practice) as a legal basis under data protection legislation always necessary to send direct marketing communications?
The Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data (GDPR) is directly applicable in Belgium to the processing of personal data, including for direct marketing purposes.
The processing of personal data is also governed by specific laws1.
With respect to electronic direct marketing in particular, the Royal Decree of 4 April 2003 regulating the sending of advertising by e-mail lays down some important rules… Read more
