DMA Board Adopts New Advanced Consent Marketing Guidelines

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, October 23, 2002 - The Direct Marketing Association (The DMA) Board of Directors this week adopted new guidelines for advanced consent marketing. The new guidelines address marketing plans where the consumer gives consent to receive and pay for goods and services in the future on a continuing or a periodic basis unless and until the consumer cancels the plan.

"This is another step that we are taking to ensure that consumers are completely informed when making a purchase," said H. Robert Wientzen, president & CEO, The DMA. "We are confident that marketers will comply with these guidelines, which strengthen our industry’s commitment to ethical responsibility and self regulation."

The following principles apply to all advance consent marketing plans:

Marketers should have the consumer’s advance informed consent to participate in any marketing plan before the consumer is billed or charged.
Marketers may provide products or services and bills concurrently; however, consumers should not be obligated to pay bills prior to the expiration of any trial period.
Marketers should inform consumers in the initial offer and in renewal reminders of their right to cancel their participation in the plan.
Marketers should provide renewal reminders at the frequency specified in the initial offer. Marketers should allow a reasonable length of time between receipt of renewal reminders and the renewal date, before which consumers can cancel the plan.
Marketers should honor requests for refunds due promptly upon consumers’ cancellation of the plan.
Marketers should clearly and conspicuously disclose material terms and conditions before obtaining the consumers’ consent, including:

a description of the goods or services being offered
the identity of the marketers and contact information for service or cancellation
the interval between shipments or services to be provided
the price or the range of prices of the goods or services purchased by the consumer, including whether there are any additional charges
whether the consumer will be billed or automatically charged
the fact that the consumer must cancel in order to avoid future billing or charges
an easy method of cancellation
the time period if any within which the consumer must cancel

When applicable, the following terms and conditions should also be clearly and conspicuously disclosed in the initial offer:

that the current plan or renewal prices of the goods or services are subject to change
the length of any free, trial or approval period in time or quantity
the length of any membership period, and the length of subsequent renewal or billing periods
the fact that goods or services will continue after the free period unless the consumer cancels
any minimum purchase obligations
terms and conditions of any refund policy

All marketing partners or service providers should comply with these guidelines. All DMA guidelines are enforced by The DMA’s ethics committees.

The DMA Board met during its 85^th Annual Conference & Exhibition held this week in San Francisco, California. For more information about The DMA’s ethical guidelines, visit http://www.the-dma.org/library/guidelines.

The DMA is the leading 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. Included are catalogers, Internet retailers and service providers, financial services providers, book and magazine publishers, book and music clubs, retail stores, industrial manufacturers and a host of other vertical segments, including the service industries that support them. According to a DMA-commissioned study, direct and interactive marketing sales in the United States is projected to surpass $2 trillion in 2002, including $125 billion in catalog sales and $33 billion in sales generated by the Internet. The DMA's Web site is www.the-dma.org, and its consumer Web site is www.shopthenet.org.

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