Why do we need an ethical marketing charter?
Independent research commissioned by National Accident Helpline - and conducted by leading marketing research company Populus - found that over half of consumers found cold calls distressing and that two thirds weren't confident of where to report them.
Unethical marketing practices including cold calling, spam texts and spam emails often leave consumers feeling angry and harassed. The use of these practices is widespread across many industries and the Information Commissioner's office has received over 175,000 cold calling complaints in the last year.
The government has begun to take action, including raising fines and making it easier to prosecute offending companies, but political will alone is not enough to bring an end to these unethical practices - industry must also take action. The personal injury sector is often singled out for poor marketing practices. National Accident Helpline, along with the many other organisations in our sector which use ethical marketing practices wanted to publicly take a stand against unethical marketing practices.
That is why we have founded the Ethical Marketing Charter which encourages organisations within the personal injury sector to sign up and demonstrate their ethical and professional credentials.
We believe the Ethical Marketing Charter will help consumers to identify ethical organisations and to stamp out bad practice amongst rogue players in the sector.
Below we outline the commitments that signatories from the personal injury sector agree to adhere to.
Ethical Marketing Charter commitments
- Charter signatories stand firmly against nuisance marketing - they never cold call or send spam texts or spam emails.
- Charter signatories stand firmly against the unethical buying and selling of accident data - they never misuse accident data to pressure people into making a claim.
- Charter signatories stand firmly against inappropriate and misleading advertising - they never induce personal injury claims by making false or misleading promises in their advertising, and are clear and upfront about any exclusions to no win, no fee.
