Claire Stockill Presents GDPR Implications For Email Marketing

Leeds-based commercial solicitor Claire Stockill has presented the results of Irwin Mitchell's latest GDPR research at a prestigious marketing conference in Barcelona.

Claire addressed an audience, which included senior decision-makers from companies including Ralph Lauren, Amazon, Deliveroo and Chelsea Football Club, to explain what the forthcoming new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will mean for the way they use email to market to their customers in the future.

GDPR represents the biggest change in 25 years to how businesses process personal information and it replaces existing data protection laws. Under the new rules, the maximum fine for certain data breaches in the UK will rise from £500,000 to €20million or 4% of global turnover, whichever is larger.

The 'Email Insider Summit Europe' is organised by MediaPost and ran from the 26-28 June 2017. Other speakers included Marion Leggedoor, Email Marketing Manager at ABN AMRO, Michael Le, Email Marketing Manager at Amazon, and Adam Palmerini, Head of CRM at Paddy Power.

Irwin Mitchell was approached and asked to attend on the back of their recent study which highlighted that the majority of businesses in the UK are unaware and not prepared for the new rules which come into force in less than a year’s time.

The research found that 71% of businesses are unaware of the new fines with 18% saying they would go out of business if they received the maximum punishment. Ten per cent think they would need to make significant job cuts with a further 21% admitting that smaller scale headcount reductions will be necessary.

Claire Stockill at Irwin Mitchell said: "It was a great honour to be invited to this event and have the opportunity to speak and network with so many influential people in the world of email marketing.

“The new data protection rules will have a dramatic impact on the way businesses are allowed to communicate with their customers and it was great to share the findings from our recent research, whilst also discussing and helping organisations prepare for what will be challenging legislation." 

The full GDPR report us available to download from the Irwin Mitchell website.