AFFILIATE MARKETING INDUSTRY NEEDS TO CLEAN UP ITS ACT IN TERMS OF PRIVACY LAW COMPLIANCE.

An international operation has found that the affiliate marketing industry has significant issues to overcome in terms of compliance with rules concerning privacy and unsolicited communications.

Affiliate marketing is a commercial arrangement allowing a company to generate business by allowing other organisations (“affiliates”) to promote their products or services. For example, an online retailer may pay commission to an external website for traffic or sales generated from its referrals, by hosting links on its own site or sending links out via email or text message.

A global intelligence-gathering operation (the “UCENet Sweep 2017”) was conducted by the Unsolicited Communications Enforcement Network (“UCENet”), involving 10 agencies from six countries, including the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority (the “GRA”), as the Data Protection Commissioner. The agencies visited 902 websites and also examined 6,536 consumer complaints related to affiliate marketing in their respective databases.

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