Dutch Telecom Law valid from October 1st – delay caused by Don’t-call-me record

Monday the 15th of June the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs has published a press release about the new Dutch Telecom Law. This law will become effective from October 1st, in stead of July 1st, as earlier reports stated. The delay is caused by the Don't-call-me record.

Telecom Law
For quite some time Dutch marketeers are concentrating on one thing, the new Telecom Law. When this law becomes valid, we don't just need explicit permission from individuals, but also from our business relations, in order to send them commercial e-mail, mobile text messages or faxes. By this the Dutch government has created a complete ban for sending spam to Dutch residents.

Many marketeers were trying to update their contact lists to get the right permissions from their contacts. Now all of a sudden the law will be effective 3 months later than originally planned. What happened?

Validation date
A phone call to the OPTA, the Dutch Independent Telecom Authority, clears up the mystery. A part of the new Telecom Law are the new rules for telemarketing. This should end unwanted calls from telephone salesmen. Negotiations between the Dutch government and the organizations responsible for checking company compliance to the Don't-call-me record took more time than anticipated.

Consequences of this delay?
Until October 1st it's not yet illegal to send commercial mailings to business relations without permission. This is no excuse however, to quickly send a few great offers to all your contacts. It's an extra opportunity to update your contact list so that from now on you only send with explicit permission (opt-in).

Our website offers various whitepapers which can be downloaded for free. They can help you set up your e-mailing to get those opt-in registrations.