Start making phone calls, marketers: Congress and the Obama administration are mulling or implementing a number of new policies regarding regulatory oversight, and if these are left unchallenged the direct marketing community is not going to like the results.
The first threat is a Congressional attempt to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), according to Linda Woolley, executive VP for government affairs at the Direct Marketing Association. This bill would create a new governing body which would monitor many basic actions marketers take. Such as? Buy one, get one free offers, negative option programs and offers that allow customers to take six months (or however long) to pay for their purchases.
In short,