Electronic communication meaning

This decision tree sets out a logical route for deciding whether you may undertake email marketing and, if so, who you can contact. It is just as applicable to text and SMS activity. Separate trees cover postal and live telephone direct marketing—see: Direct marketing decision tree—postal—data protection and Direct marketing decision tree—live telephone calls—data protection. Of all marketing channels, electronic marketing is the most demanding from a regulatory perspective. You must comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations 2003 (PECR 2003). PECR 2003 applies different rules to different electronic marketing methods, depending on your audience and the goods/services being promoted. You must also meet the relevant UK GDPR obligations. For more guidance, see the following Practice Notes: Direct marketing compliance—Electronic mail How to handle personal data for direct marketing Direct marketing—UK GDPR and PECR 2003 interplay What is electronic mail direct marketing? Direct marketing is the communication, by any means, of...

This decision tree sets out a logical route to assess whether you may carry out postal direct marketing and, if so, who you can target. For other types of marketing, refer to: Direct marketing decision tree—email and other electronic mail marketing—data protection and Direct marketing decision tree—live telephone calls—data protection. Direct marketing is the communication—by any means—of advertising or marketing material directed at specific individuals. Note 1—personal data and corporate targets Postal marketing addressed to named individuals taken from your customer database involves processing personal data. The scope of personal data is broad enough to capture business-to-business marketing, particularly post sent to named individuals in their professional role: ‘Personal data’ covers any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person...

This decision tree outlines a logical route for deciding whether you can carry out live telephone marketing and, if permitted, who you may contact. For guidance on other forms of marketing, see: Direct marketing decision tree—postal—data protection and Direct marketing decision tree—email and other electronic mail marketing—data protection. Direct marketing refers to the communication (by any means) of advertising or promotional material directed at specific individuals. Live or automated telephone calls? This decision tree is not intended for automated calls, as the rules governing automated calls are far more stringent than those for live calls. You must not make automated marketing calls to an individual unless they have given explicit consent to receive that precise type of call from you. General marketing consent, or consent applicable only to live calls, is insufficient—it must expressly include automated calls. Consequently, there is little value in a decision tree for automated marketing calls—this tree covers live marketing calls only. See Practice Note: Direct marketing compliance—Automated calls. Claims management services ...

Thomas v Cheltenham Borough Council [2025] EWCA Civ 259 What are the practical implications of this case? This judgment will interest practitioners dealing with prior approval applications for electronic communication developments, and, more generally, those pursuing public law challenges about material considerations and appeals against High Court decisions. It reviews the Supreme Court's guidance in Friends of the Earth v Secretary of State for Transport [2021] UKSC 52 on three types of information that can amount to a material consideration. These include: information that legislation or policy, either expressly or by necessary implication, obliges the decision-maker to take into account or to ignore; and information that the decision-maker is entitled to consider where, in their own judgement and discretion, they regard it as appropriate. The judgment underlines that, within this third class, a decision-maker may choose not to refer to something others might regard as pertinent; yet, unless it was so plainly relevant that no rational decision-maker could have left it out of account, the omission to have regard...

EU financial services developments Commission seeks views on EU banking competitiveness The European Commission has opened a call for evidence to review overall competitiveness within the EU banking sector, examining structural hurdles to cross‑border operations and the degree of financial market integration more broadly. The exercise will assess whether the existing prudential, supervisory and crisis management frameworks remain fit for purpose in light of shifting market dynamics, ongoing digitalisation and worldwide competitive pressures. Submissions are requested by 11 March 2026. Under the Savings and Investments Union (SIU), the Commission intends in 2026 to release a communication on the Single Market in banking, featuring an appraisal of the sector’s competitiveness and related issues. The Commission notes that ten years of reforms have greatly reinforced financial stability, yet the EU banking landscape is still segmented along national borders, characterised by a highly complex regulatory framework and notably varying national implementation of certain rules and market structures...

In this issue: Beyond Brexit UK, EU and international regulators and bodies Authorisation, approval and supervision Prudential requirements Operational resilience Complaints, compensation and claims management Financial crime and sanctions Consumer credit, mortgage and home finance Conduct requirements Investigations, enforcement and discipline Regulation of capital markets Regulation of derivatives Sustainable finance and ESG Banks and mutuals Investment funds and asset management UK MiFID II EU MiFID II Regulation of insurance Payment services and systems Fintech and cryptoassets LexTalk®Financial Services: a Lexis®Nexis community Dates for your diary Financial Services Enforcement Database Daily and weekly news alerts Intraday news alerts Beyond Brexit FCA updates guidance on the financial services contracts regime, temporary permissions regime and leaving SRO or CRO The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has refreshed its guidance covering the temporary permissions regime, the financial services contracts regime, and how firms...

This Practice Note serves as a practical ‘how to’ for delivering a compliant B2C telephone and print direct marketing campaign, and points you to relevant materials. It distils the key principles and legal rules governing direct marketing, and explains how they affect print and telephone activity. It also offers hands-on advice on the steps and issues to weigh up before dispatching marketing mailings or placing marketing calls to consumers. Given the variety of routes available for a direct marketing initiative, different legal considerations may arise depending on the campaign’s design, the copy used, the exact media chosen and the jurisdictions in scope. This Practice Note does not cover digital forms of direct marketing, such as social media advertising, mobile and virtual advertising. For a ‘how to’ on running a compliant direct marketing campaign in a digital setting, see Practice Note: How to run a compliant direct marketing campaign—digital. What is direct marketing? ‘Direct marketing’ means the communication, by any method, of advertising or marketing material directed at...

What is digital health? Digital health is a broad umbrella describing how information and communication technologies are used to enhance prevention, diagnosis, treatment, monitoring, and the management of health conditions and lifestyle habits that influence wellbeing. Its rise reflects the coming together of healthcare and technology, and a move away from provider‑focused, ‘one size fits all’ delivery towards personalised, patient‑centred care. This Practice Note explores data protection considerations across three digital health use cases: Wearables Use of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical diagnostics Digital health records Unlike mobile health (mHealth), which is limited to care delivered via mobile devices, digital health is wider in scope. It encompasses modern care models such as digital therapeutics, telemedicine, digitised health systems and electronic health records, as well as AI, machine learning and data analytics. For more on mHealth, see Practice Notes: Digital health—regulation of mHealth apps and medical software and mHealth—data protection considerations. Digital health solutions can be applied at every stage...

The Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016 (IR 2016), SI 2016/1024 introduced an updated framework for decision-making across all insolvency procedures from 6 April 2017. The detailed rules governing decision-making are contained in IR 2016, SI 2016/1024, Pt 15. The prescribed decision procedures There are five decision procedures through which a trustee in bankruptcy (trustee) may obtain a decision from a bankrupt’s creditors under section 379ZA of the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986), namely: correspondence electronic voting virtual meeting physical meeting any other decision-making procedure which enables equal participation by all creditors Seeking a decision without a meeting Correspondence If a decision is sought by correspondence, creditors will only be able to accept or reject the proposal. Electronic voting This mirrors correspondence in that creditors will only be able to accept or reject the proposed decision. Where electronic voting is to be used: the notice delivered to creditors must include any...

Part 1, interpretation and limitation of liability Unless the context requires otherwise, these articles use terms defined in the Companies Act 2006 (and any amending or subordinate legislation) and within these articles. Defined terms include: address; articles; bankruptcy (including similar overseas procedures); chair and chair of the meeting (articles 13 and 30); Companies Acts; director (including anyone acting as such); document (including electronic); electronic form/means and hard copy form; instrument; member; ordinary and special resolutions; eligible director; participate; proxy notice; relevant officer (non‑auditor officers of the company or any group undertaking, present or former); subsidiary; and writing (any visible representation, including electronic) The model articles are excluded. Unless otherwise stated, statutory expressions bear the meaning they had when these articles became binding. References to legislation include any modification, re‑enactment or replacement. Singular includes plural and vice versa; masculine includes feminine and neuter; persons include corporations Each member’s liability is limited to £1, payable on a winding up while a member or within one year of ceasing, towards:...

Warning: This promotional material has not been signed off or otherwise approved by an authorised person as defined under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. If you rely on this promotion when undertaking any investment activity, you could potentially face a particularly substantial financial risk of losing the entirety of the capital or other assets you commit. This document is issued by [ insert the name of the person making the financial promotion, or on whose behalf the financial promotion is made ]. Anyone receiving this document who requires additional details, or wishes to raise any other enquiry concerning the subjects to which this communication pertains, should send a request to [ insert the postal or electronic address to which a recipient should send such requests. Also, if applicable, insert the country or territory in which the person making the financial promotion, or on whose behalf the financial promotion is made, is incorporated. Also, provide the registered address of the person making the financial promotion, or on whose...

[ On headed notepaper of company ] [ Insert shareholder name ] [ Insert shareholder address ] Dear [ [ shareholder name ] OR Sir/Madam ] Request to send or supply documents in electronic form and by making them available on a website This letter is from [ insert company name ] [ PLC OR Limited ] (the Company) to request your agreement to receive [ documents and information OR [ insert details of specific document or information ] ] in electronic format and through publication on a website. As well as obtaining your personal consent to communications via website publication, the Company must either secure the members’ authority by ordinary resolution, or have wording in its articles of association that permits communication by website. [ The Company [ has already obtained such authority by way of ordinary resolution passed at [ a OR an annual ] general meeting on [ insert date ] OR already has provisions to allow website communications in...

The organisation must ensure it fully complies with the TPS Assured (Call Centre) Handbook 2016, which specifies that a call centre must disclose its own organisation’s identity whenever requested by a recipient. Regulation 24 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (SI 2003/2426) provides the following below: 24 Information to be provided for the purposes of regulations 19, 20 and 21 (1) Where a public electronic communications service is used to transmit a communication for direct marketing, the person using, or causing the use of, that service shall make sure the following information is supplied with that communication— in relation to a communication to which regulations 19 (automated calling systems) and 20 (facsimile machines) apply, the particulars mentioned in paragraph (2)(a) and (b); in relation to a communication to which regulation 21 (telephone calls) applies, the particulars mentioned in paragraph (2)(a) and, if the recipient of the call so requests, those mentioned in paragraph (2)(b)...