The Federation of European Direct and Interactive Marketing was created in 1997 as a result of the merger between EDMA (est. 1976) and FEDIM (est. 1992). FEDMA is the single voice of the European direct marketing industry. Its national members are direct marketing associations (DMAs) representing users, service providers and media/carriers of direct marketing. FEDMA also has more than 200 direct company members.

Today, direct marketing strategies (via mail, telephone, Internet and direct response) are an essential tool for companies to approach, inform and retain customers, as well as providing customer relationship services. The development of sophisticated databases, telemarketing and e-marketing has made direct marketing increasingly popular as a marketing strategy and has encouraged strong investment.

The direct marketing sector represents an annual expenditure of over 60 billion euro and employs over 2 million people directly, and many more indirectly, within the EU.