If you (or your Company) are sending out Newsletters to your Customers and they happen to be in the EU, you need to be aware of current Privacy Rules (in the EU) – GDPR Compliant Newsletters are a Must if you want to avoid legal Issues.
Known as GDPR Policies or DSGVO in the German Speaking Areas, you need to make sure that in principle you follow those Guidelines.
Newsletter Service Providers such as MAILCHIMP which is very popular but is based in the U.S.A., does NOT necessarily meet those Requirements.
A German Court recently ruled that the use of MAILCHIMP was not compatible with the requirements of the GDPR and prohibited a company from using it. The reason for the decision is that the data transfer to MAILCHIMP in the U.S.A. was not checked for additional data protection measures.
You don’t want to take any legal risks and want to play it safe?
Then we recommend the following procedure:
First of all: Stay relaxed! Under no circumstances should you rush to end your existing cooperation with MAILCHIMP and possibly damage your business in the process.
Switching newsletter providers involves a lot of effort and can raise a lot of questions for you. In order to be able to prepare for a possible change in a structured manner, you should not allow yourself to be put under time pressure by a court decision.
My tip: Look around for alternatives to MAILCHIMP to be legally compliant. I recommend that you opt for a European company. The reason for this is that European companies must comply with the GDPR (or DSGVO) rules. This means that if the General Data Protection Regulation changes, European providers must adapt their service accordingly.
We recommend the following newsletter providers to our customers: Some offer Free Trials or even free Accounts depending on the Nr of Email Newsletters sent.
CleverReach (Rastede, Germany)
sendinblue (formerly Newsletter2go – Berlin, D)
rapidmail (Freiburg, D)
Mailjet (Berlin, D)
The providers have different pricing models, depending on the Amount of Emails sent.
Help with GDPR Compliant Newsletters