DMC: Firms must be able to learn from other's cock-ups

The data-driven marketing industry’s top cop is calling on businesses to learn from other’s mistakes by bringing education to the forefront and sharing learnings from data protection investigations to improve industry practices.

Data & Marketing Commission chief commissioner Amerdeep Somal has issued the rallying cry following the publication of the DMC Annual Report 2021-22, insisting that regulators can actually help businesses rather than just enforce the rules, especially SMEs, when the UK data protection reforms are passed.

The DMC also reveals that plans are progressing for the organisation to become an accredited monitoring body for the Information Commissioner’s Office, with an enhanced remit to enforce the DMA’s Industry Code. It is hoped that this will be achieved by early 2023.

Somal said: “The DMC is working closely with the ICO to help change perceptions of regulators, so we are not just seen as regulation enforcers, but also as free knowledge hubs for businesses and consumers.

“The DMC believes there is a great opportunity to create industry-wide feedback reports more frequently with additional best practice learnings, to further support the business community through both challenging and uncertain times.

“Annual reports like ours and the ICO’s are a great resource for business learning through their evidence-based reporting and unique industry insights.

“The reports provide timely insights into industry issues to help businesses learn from common mistakes, helping to prevent expensive legal costs and reduce training fees which can be a huge burden on businesses, especially SMEs. For these reasons, our industry must use complaint feedback more to enhance data privacy learning for SMEs when UK GDPR is reformed.”

Ironically, this year’s DMC Annual Report, which covers the period from July 2021 to June 2022, reveals that overall complaints against the marketing industry have declined, although there has been an increase in the number of customer service complaints, rising from 18% to 31%.

Most of the complaints received still relate to data, privacy, and quality (62%), with contractual (8%) problems making up the remainder. The total number of complaints against non-DMA members declined by 44% this year.

For the second year running, the DMC investigated fewer complaints involving members of the DMA during this period – falling by 25% when compared to the previous year’s total. Member complaints amounted to nearly a quarter of the total number of complaints (24%).

Somal added: “Not only have complaints against DMA members continued to decline year-on-year, but we have also observed a sharp decline against non-DMA members too. This is likely due to growing awareness by organisations about their obligation to their customers to be transparent and respectful.

“However, with UK data protection laws due to reform soon, businesses must stay vigilant, engaged, and responsible – ready to embrace the reforms with the help of regulators like the DMC.”