At Wizemobile we insist that our clients comply with all relevant laws when using our service to manage their MMS Mobile Marketing campaigns. That protects both of us.

That sounds stern - but it is actually very straightforward. Three things to remember about the law and best practice before you start:

It's not draconian - in fact you might be able to do more than you thought whilst still being compliant;
It's there because people hate receiving spam. So breaking it is only going to upset your customers and potential customers; It's black and white, with very few tricky grey areas, and it's not 'constantly changing'.
Laws are not standardised across Europe. For the purposes of this overview, we'll concentrate on UK law.

The fundamentals

• The commercial nature of your message must be clear to the recipient from the outset
• You must not conceal or disguise the origin of the message
• You must give a valid unsubscribe mechanism.
• Recipients of your MMS must have OPTED IN to receive it.

There are two exceptions to this last 'opt-in' rule:

• You can promote your business products (only) to employees of a Limited Company
• If an individual has bought (or negotiated to buy) something from you, and provided their mobile number for this, you can promote SIMILAR goods and services to them.

Note - you do not have to actually make the sale. You must supply a valid and free opt-out mechanism.

'Forward to a Friend' and viral MMS Mobile Marketing campaigns

Here are the basics:

• You must make clear that the recipient should forward the MMS only to people who s/he thinks will be happy to receive it
• If you offer a personal incentive for people to forward the Mobile Marketing Message, and it's subsequently sent to people who are unhappy to receive it, then you are liable as the instigator of that MMS.
• You cannot ask a recipient to provide you with other people's mobile numbers, unless you have the specific consent of those individuals - whether directly to you or via the original recipient.

You can:
Ask a recipient if they mind you PASSING THEIR DETAILS to a third party organisation to promote their products, and then if they agree pass on their details. Ensure that the third party is reputable and complies with the law (eg with unsubscribes etc).

Send genuine business-related MMS to your existing customers, or to people who have previously left their details with you when making a sales enquiry, provided the MMS is about a similar product.

You can't:
Treat competitions etc., as an 'opt in' way of building a database - recipients must specifically say that they are opting in to receive promotional mobile marketing messages.

Claim that a recipient has opted-in if you cannot provide evidence of that fact.

Note - this applies if you purchase lists from third parties. It is your responsibility to check the source of the list.
You should:
Appoint a data protection officer to be responsible for your compliance with the law.