The previous consensus was that marketers could market any products to customers or potential customers once opt-in had been gained.
Robert Dirskovski, head of interactive media, DMA, said: "This is far less pragmatic. Trying to define what is 'similar' is almost impossible - are kitchens and bathrooms similar? I don't know, but Homebase sells both."
Mary Tait, assistant director to the directive said: "By previously letting marketers promote products people would 'expect' that firm to contact them about, we felt it wasn't close enough to the original directive."
Another concern is the deletion of section 26.1, which suggested emails generated from commercial opt-in lists would not be considered as unsolicited.
The DMA hoped this would cover the use of legacy data or bought lists that had opt-in data.
Tait said: "If data is opt-in, that's fine. It is where non opted out data is seen as soft opt-in, that marketers must secure new permission."
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