We sent the following question to the Data Commissioners Office on the 16th of March. The response is below:

Q. We have always had the opt-in box auto-ticked when people signed up and gave consent i.e. – they received marketing and information messages from us in the past with the option to unsubscribe. They have not unsubscribed. Can we still market to these customers after May 25th?

A. “Thank you for your questions from March 16th. While further specific guidance in relation to this will be issued once the Irish Data Protection Bill 2018 has been signed into law, it would appear in the circumstance that you have outlined that the consent to be marketed to can be assumed based on the customers not utilising the opt-out; this would, of course, only be true so long as an opt-out has always been made available.”

We hope the above information has clarified some questions you have related to GDPR and your SMS lists. We will be hosting a GDPR webinar on Wednesday, April 11th. If you have any questions related to GDPR and SMS please email [email protected] or [email protected], and we will do our best to answer during Q&A. If you would like to register for the webinar please contact Saoirse or John.

Thank you.
Saoirse