Not just any address can be used for direct marketing. Precise rules must be respected at the time of collection, i.e. when the address is acquired. These rules, laid down by the 1978 French Data Protection Act (Informatique et Libertés) and the 2004 French Law on Confidence in the Digital Economy (Loi sur la confiance dans l’Economie numérique or LCEN), require that the owner of the address be informed of the data collection and its purposes, in particular its use for commercial prospecting. They also oblige the file administrator to offer address owners the possibility of unsubscribing from the file at any time.
According to this legal framework, and in particular the LCEN, a direct marketing campaign can be carried out in two distinct ways, depending on the identity of the target of the prospecting campaign.
The Opt-in system, i.e. prior consent, applies to the addresses of private individuals. In other words, at the time of collection, the owner must have given his or her free and explicit consent to receive commercial prospecting messages. For example, by responding positively to the question: “Would you like to receive offers from our company?” where the answer takes the form of a click on a checkbox.
For business addresses (mainly those of legal entities), the so-called Opt-out regime applies, i.e. the right to object. Prior consent is not required, provided that address collection complies with the other rules mentioned above. On the other hand, the address holder must be able to unsubscribe from the file at any time; in practice, this presupposes that he or she is informed of this possibility, and that the technical means are available to enable him or her to do so easily.
Is your file Opt-in or Opt-out?
We only offer professional files: All the files we rent are Opt-out files, although a small proportion of addresses are Opt-in. Our database has been set up in compliance with current French legislation and has been declared to the CNIL.
Can I use your files today?
Yes, if you want to send a professional message to a professional target.
A professional message is one that is of interest to the company through the person holding the email address.
If, on the other hand, you want to address the individual by offering a product that will be of personal interest to them, you can only use the Opt-in addresses in our file.
