What are the rules for marketing emails and texts in New Zealand?

The three requirements

1. Consent. You must have consent to send a commercial electronic message. The Act recognises:

• express consent: the person opted in, for example by ticking a box or signing up
• inferred consent: reasonably inferred from conduct and an existing business or other relationship, such as a recent customer who gave you their email in a purchase and would reasonably expect to hear from you
• deemed consent: someone conspicuously publishes a work email address, without saying they don’t want messages, and your message is relevant to their role

Express consent is the safest. Keep a record of when and how each person opted in.

2. Sender identification. Each message must clearly identify who authorised it and how to contact them.

3. A working unsubscribe. The Department of Internal Affairs says:

• every message must include an unsubscribe option that is clear, prominent and easy to use
• people must be able to reply through the same channel the message came by
• unsubscribing must be free, which matters especially for texts
• the unsubscribe must keep working for at least 30 days after the message
• messages must stop within 5 working days of an unsubscribe request

The Privacy Act also applies

The Privacy Commissioner’s retail guidance points out that information collected for one purpose, such as sending a digital receipt, can’t be used for marketing unless an exception applies, such as getting the customer’s permission at the time of collection. So a receipt email address isn’t automatically a marketing list.

Practical checklist

• [ ] Opt-in box unticked by default, with clear wording about what people will receive
• [ ] A record of each consent, with the date, source and wording
• [ ] Sender name and contact details in every message
• [ ] One-click unsubscribe, tested, and synced across all your tools within 5 working days
• [ ] A suppression list so unsubscribed people aren’t re-added from another list
• [ ] No bought lists. You can’t buy consent

Enforcement

The Department of Internal Affairs enforces the Act. People can report spam at reportspam.co.nz, by forwarding texts to 7726, or by emailing info@antispam.govt.nz. Breaches can lead to formal warnings, infringement notices and civil penalties.