The ICO has fined Decision Technologies Limited (DTL) £90,000 for a marketing email error.
The marketing email error was sending emails with marketing messages in them without consent.
The emails were actually sent by other organisations acting for DTL, (which had placed contractual obligations on them to comply with all relevant legislation relating to email marketing). However, those other organisations failed to obtain valid consent from those individuals who received the emails.
The ICO identified DTL as the ‘instigator’ of the marketing and that, as such, it was responsible to ensure that valid consent to send the marketing emails had been obtained.
Insight
This case shows that the ICO will go after the business that is the controller of the marketing activity and the importance of carrying out due diligence on third parties providing marketing services – and not to rely exclusively on contractual arrangements.
If your organisation is looking to comply with the requirements of the GDPR then take a look at how our CSaaS and DPaaS solutions can help.