Another supermarket, another can of spam
Last month I wrote about Morrisons, the supermarket chain, which was fined by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for spamming its customers. This month it is the turn of MoneySupermarket to fall foul of the regulators.
Over a ten-day period at the start of December 2016, MoneySupermarket sent out 7.1 million emails to people who had previously asked not to be contacted. The message included a section headed "Preference Centre Update" and the message read:
"We hold an e-mail address for you which means we could be sending you personalised news, products and promotions. You've told us in the past you prefer not to receive these. If you'd like to reconsider, simply click the following link to start receiving our e-mails."
The ICO took a dim view of this and has issued statements saying: Asking people to consent to future marketing messages when they have already opted out is against the law. Organisations can't get around the law by sending direct marketing dressed up as legitimate updates. When people opt out of direct marketing, organisations must stop sending it, no questions asked, until such time as the consumer gives their consent. They don't get a chance to persuade people to change their minds. By sending emails to consumers under the guise of customer service, checking, or seeking their consent, Moneysupermarket is circumventing the rules, which is unacceptable. We will continue to take action against companies that choose to ignore the rules.
A spokesman for MoneySupermarket apologised unreservedly for the transgression and said it was a one-off incident. Last month, Morrisons was fined £10,500 for sending out a mailshot of similarly-themed messages. This month, MoneySupermarket has been fined £80,000.
Companies across the land should take note of this and realise there are rules in place that companies must adhere to. Accounts departments have to obey financial reporting and tax rules, engineering departments have to obey health and safety rules, and marketing departments have to obey privacy rules. Thinking that the law doesn't apply to you, that you can argue ignorance of the law or excuse it by saying you acted in good faith, or that you can work around it by calling it a database update is becoming an increasingly expensive mistake to make.
27th July 2017
This article comes from the SKILLZONE email newsletter, published monthly since January 2008, and covering topics related to technology and the internet. All articles and artwork in the SKILLZONE newsletter are orignal content.