Direct Marketing Commission - Enforcing Higher Industry Standards

Anyone can complain to the Direct Marketing Commission free of charge either through our online complaints form or by contacting us directly at dm@dmcommission.com.

The Direct Marketing Commission
DMA House
70 Margaret Street
London
W1W 8SS

Telephone: 020 7291 3350
Fax: 020 7323 4165

Following receipt of a complaint the Directorate of the Commission will contact the subject of your complaint setting out the grounds on which it has been made, attaching the correspondence you have sent and requesting a response. In instances where a company does not respond or where the Directorate considers that the complaint warrants a formal investigation, the case will be presented to the Board of Commissioners for adjudication. Further details of the complaints procedure may be found on the adjudications page.

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) is the national trade association for the direct marketing industry in the UK. It is Europe’s largest trade association in the marketing and communications sector, with approximately 800 corporate members. The DMA represents both advertisers, who market their products using direct marketing techniques – for example catalogue companies, financial services and charities – and specialist suppliers of direct marketing services to those advertisers – for example, creative agencies, list brokers, mailing and fulfilment houses and outsourced contact centres.

The DMA also administers the consumer preference services for telephone, mailing and fax. On behalf of its membership, the DMA promotes best practice, through its Code, in order to maintain and enhance consumers’ trust and confidence in the direct marketing industry.

The Direct Marketing Commission (DMC) is the body which oversees the Direct Marketing Association (DMA)’s DM Code of Practice.  The Code and DMC are here to give effective protection to recipients, users and practitioners of direct marketing.  We aim to ensure companies observe the highest standards of integrity and trade fairly with their customers and with each other, and we do this by investigating complaints, scrutinising direct marketing issues and practices, and providing guidance to consumers.

The DMC investigates all direct marketing complaints against DMA members where the complaint is within the scope of the DM Code of Practice.  If the complaint is not covered by the Code, it will be referred to another relevant organisation.

The Commission has a range of sanctions that it will apply proportionately, depending on the seriousness of the issue or complaint. These include: the requirement to sign a formal undertaking to comply with the Direct Marketing Code; a formal recommendation to the DMA, where appropriate, that its member has failed to conform with the DMC’s ruling and should be suspended or expelled from the Association (this deprives the member of an extensive range of services that are valuable to its business); adverse publicity where the outcome of the Commission’s ruling is placed on its website and made available to the media; referral to law enforcement bodies such as the Office of Fair Trading, Trading Standards Authority, Information Commissioner’s Office etc.