online marketing

Everyone knows the importance of online marketing especially social media campaigns as a common way for tech companies and startups to convert new customers and increase tractions.

No wonder “growth hackers” and “SEO experts” are getting so much demand by companies nowadays.

If you are a startup or a technology company selling products or services online, take a look at this short online marketing legal primer so that your online marketing efforts are legally compliant.

Know your business

An easy way to know if you have to pay extra attention to your online marketing efforts is whether you are operating in a regulated industry.

Startups in areas such as fintech, healthtech, foodtech, and e-commerce generally have to comply with additional marketing and advertising restrictions.

These laws are designed and imposed by regulators to protect the general public from any misrepresentation or false advertising and to let the public make an informed decision when they choose to buy a product or service.

So if you are already regulated by a regulator, it will be a good idea to take time to really make sure that you know the dos and don’ts before you start publicising your startup on the internet.

Also Read: What you need to know about digital marketing for the new normal

Have a social media policy and branding guidelines

Every company should have a social media policy and branding guidelines.

A social media policy usually applies to all the directors, employees, and independent contractors that you work with which includes confidentiality provisions.

Branding guidelines set out your official branding collaterals like logo, official font, formatting including the dos and don’ts when your social media team post contents online for online.

This not only helps you to ensure consistency within your team, but also when working with external parties.

This helps set out clear expectations on how a company’s collateral and digital assets can be published and used by third-party online marketing or social media houses or influencers.

Know the personal data protection laws

All companies now need to comply with the personal data protection laws.

Essentially, they are a set of rules that companies need to follow so that the customers’ personal data are used in accordance with what they’ve promised to the customers as set out in the privacy policy or in the personal data protection notice.

Many countries now have their own version of personal data protection laws in place. All Southeast Asian countries with the exceptions of Cambodia and Bangladesh have their own respective personal data laws.

When drafting a privacy policy for your online platform or your mobile app, it will be good to engage a privacy lawyer to understand personal data protection compliance.

You should at least know the differences between a ‘data user’ (ie a company that obtains personal data like full name, date of birth, contact details, and so on) and a ‘data subject’ which is a customer providing the personal data.

Also Read: Surviving COVID-19: How to adapt your digital marketing strategy amidst a global crisis

If you are engaging a company or a customer within the European Union (EU) territory, you may also need to check if you have to comply with The General Data Protection Regulation, a regulation on data protection and privacy with a wide coverage extending to personal data outside the EU continent.

Furthermore, common sense may also help when you want to publish online content on your social media postings. For example, unless there is clear consent by a customer, you should be careful when posting contents that may contain personal information belonging to customers as they may be a breach of personal data protection laws.

Know consumer protection laws if you are selling products online

If you are an e-commerce platform and involved in promoting products or services, take note of the consumer protection laws as well.

For instance, Malaysia has the Consumer Protection Act 1999, which protects consumers against a range of unfair practices and enforces minimum product standards. The scope has been updated to cover e-commerce transactions and additional safeguards to protect consumers from unfair terms.

To cater to the growing e-commerce platforms, online sellers need to put up certain necessary disclosure to ensure consumers can make an informed decision before they buy a product online.

For example, in Malaysia, someone who is selling an online product needs to include:

name or name of the company or name of the business that operates the online business
company or business registration number, if applicable
contact address (email, telephone, and address of the person or company)
description of the goods or services provided
the full price of the goods or services. This must include shipping cost, tax, and other costs that the seller intends to charge the buyer.
payment method
terms and conditions for the sale
The estimated time of delivery for goods purchased, which must include estimated time for all shipping options that you have offered, if any.

A company commits an offence if it fails to comply with any of the above disclosure requirements. This also includes if you gave false or misleading information to the public. Take note that the law does not discriminate between a startup or a normal company so the penalty is the same.

Also Read: 7 common legal pitfalls startup founders should avoid

An unhappy consumer can file a claim with the Tribunal for Consumer Complaints. If the claim is successful, the e-commerce company may be liable for a penalty imposed by this tribunal.

Know the local online contents regulations

Depending on where you currently operate your tech company or startup, there may be local online content regulations that you need to follow too.

In Malaysia, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is a statutory body tasked to regulate the information technology and communications industries. To summarise, they regulate online speech, providing that “no content applications service provider, or other person using a content applications service, shall provide content which is indecent, obscene, false, menacing, or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person”.

The Communications and Multimedia Content Forum of Malaysia formulates and implements the Content Code, which is a voluntary guideline for content providers concerning the handling of content deemed offensive or indecent.

If you already have a social media team in place, everyone should know the Content Code regulations including outsourced digital agency so that they do not violate these online content regulations.

If you outsource your online marketing efforts, formalise the engagement

Every influencer or online marketer that a company wants to engage needs to sign a formal engagement letter in place.

The engagement letter is a formal agreement setting out the expectations between the parties. Things like the scope and the fee can be set out in the document.

As a company, the engagement letter should have the following commercial terms:

Clear description of the scope of work including timelines for the deliverables by the social media agency
Guidelines for acceptable postings and comments
You agreeing to give access to social media accounts
Granting the limited licence by the social media company to use your logos or brands
Contingency plan in the event of disaster
Obligation to report of any incident
Deliver up of account and materials upon termination
Indemnity by the social media to you in the event of any negligence or misconduct

As online marketing gets more sophisticated allowing companies to target customers based on behaviours, activities, demographics, and so many variables, it only makes sense that these online marketing laws exist to promote a level playing field that is fair for all.

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