Report reiterates importance of ethical practices

During this period, the Committee on Ethical Business Practice and the Teleservices Ethics Committee conducted in-depth reviews and audits of the promotions or practices of 30 companies.

DMA ethics and consumer affairs staff handled an additional 1,065 complaints and inquiries from consumers about direct and interactive marketing practices.

Based on the 30 cases that were reviewed in-depth by the committees, the DMA reiterated the importance of the following ethical business practices:

• That all material information should be disclosed to the consumer in every promotion. Such disclosures should be clear, honest and conspicuous. Consumers surprised to discover that they have unknowingly joined a program or accepted an offer are not happy consumers;

• Copy on the outer envelope of a mail piece is advertising and subject to the same ethical standards as the promotion contained in the envelope. Unclear envelope copy undermines consumer trust in all marketing; and

• Marketers should honor all requests from consumers who ask not to receive further solicitations. Some marketers will remove names from their customer lists, but may not have a process to honor requests from prospective new customers not to be solicited. The DMA privacy promise requires both.

The Committees also forwarded two cases to government agencies and officials for review of potential legal violations.

Specifically, Remove.org of Washington, D.C., appears to have misled consumers as to the effectiveness of its service to remove names from national mailing, telephone and e-mail lists. The company did not respond to numerous attempts to resolve these concerns, and the case was forwarded to the Federal Trade Commission.

Zuvio.com of Porter Ranch, Calif., reportedly changed consumers’ home pages on their computers to the company’s page without prior authorization. Although the company’s terms and conditions contained disclosures about this, the Committee on Ethical Business Practice did not view the disclosures as easy to find, read and understand. The company did not respond to the committee’s attempts to resolve these consumer complaints, and the case was forwarded to the California Attorney General’s office.

“Referring companies to law enforcement is sometimes our only option. We forward cases to the authorities if – in addition to violations of the ethics guidelines – a violation of law may also be occurring, and the company has not cooperated with DMA’s ethics committees,” said Patricia Faley Kachura, DMA’s vice president of ethics and consumer affairs, in a news release.

DMA is a trade association for businesses interested in interactive and database marketing, with nearly 4,700 member companies from the United States and 53 other nations. Founded in 1917, its members include direct marketers from every business segment as well as the nonprofit and electronic marketing sectors. The organization’s Web address is www.the-dma.org.