Direct marketers who breach the Data Protection Act 1998 (“DPA“) and Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (“PECR“) will continue to be a regulatory hotspot as indicated by a recent £200,000 Monetary Penalty Notice levied by the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) against Home Energy & Lifestyle Management Ltd (“HELM“).
Readers may recall that the threshold for issuing Monetary Penalty Notices for nuisance calls and spam texts was reduced by the Government from 6 April 2015 after lengthy lobbying by the ICO.
Lessons to learn from this Monetary Penalty Notice include:
The strength of the ICO’s feeling on this matter, which all data controllers who undertake direct marketing should note, is illustrated by the ICO stating:
The ICO inferred the fine would have been greater had HELM not fully co-operated and advised it would not be running such a campaign in the future.
Michelmores would be delighted to help any data controllers who engage in direct marketing and have any queries in relation to their legal obligations under the PECR and DPA.
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