Mobile News

The clarification of the legal concept of “customer” is useful in determining the appropriateness of using either opt-in or opt-out marketing approaches. The case of the second-largest operator in Finland, Radiolinja, is an example. From the early years of mobile communication, Finland has had a similar legal opt-in regime to the one recently adopted by the EU for electronic communications. In this legal context, Radiolinja launched an opt-out type marketing campaign to customers of the third-largest operator in the country at that time, Telia. The legal rationale for Radiolinja was that all the Telia subscribers were using Radiolinja’s infrastructure and could thus be qualified as “Radiolinja” customers at that time. Radiolinja’s strategy was to make a general mobile marketing offer to all Telia card users at a time when they had to incur the inconvenience and cost of switching to the Sonera network, the country’s largest operator, following the merger between Telia and Sonera. According to the press, the result of this mobile campaign was impressive. More than 20% of the Telia customer base switched over to Radiolinja in less than a week. Radiolinja was subsequently given a warning by the consumer protection authorities.
This case reflects the importance of setting the rules of mobile marketing in a way that meets the expectations of consumers and does not infringe local legislation.