PAS2020 - Objective 2 - Suppression

1

Customer and prospect data for a campaign shall be maintained in accordance with documented procedures. This shall include, as a minimum:

• a) matching and updating mailing files against a postcode address file;
• b) suppressing customer and prospect data against the Mail Preference Service (MPS), including MPS deceased, in instances where the data is not from a consent-based file; NOTE Suppression against the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and the Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS) is also a requirement under The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.
• c) suppressing customer and prospect data against a file of customer and prospect opt out requests; and NOTE 1 The maintenance of a suppression file is specified in PAS2020 - Objective 2 - Targetting. The Data Protection Act 1998 and The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 contain requirements relating to the right to prevent the processing of data for purposes of direct marketing. NOTE 2 When using the door to door unaddressed mail communications channel, a mechanism for observing householder wishes includes, for DMA members, the Your Choice (door to door) preference service.
• d) checking customer and prospect data used in a campaign against the files referred to in a), b) and c) 30 days or less before a DM communication that uses the data is delivered to the recipient. NOTE The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 requires that unsolicited calls for direct marketing purposes to telephone numbers that are registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and the Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS) can only be made within 28 days of the numbers being registered.

Hygiene and validating records shall be carried out no less than once a year in accordance with a documented procedure.

2

In addition to the first paragraph of Level 1, including items a) to d), customer and prospect data used in a campaign shall be checked against one commercially available deceased and gone away suppression file 30 days or less before a DM communication that uses the data is delivered to the recipient.

Hygiene and validating records shall be carried out no less than twice a year in accordance with a documented procedure.

3

Level 3 shall be the entry level for high volume business-to-consumer and business-to-business direct marketers.

In addition to the first paragraph of Level 1, including items a) to d), customer and prospect data used in a campaign shall be checked against more than one commercially available deceased and gone away suppression file 30 days or less before a DM communication that uses the data is delivered to the recipient.

A client customer database shall be maintained. The data quality of the database shall be audited at least every three months to check that the database has been updated and contains accurate data. The results of these audits shall be documented.