British Regulator Fines BT Group Over Spam Emails
June 20 2018 - 8:07AM
Dow Jones News
By Adria Calatayud
The U.K. Information Commissioner's Office has fined a
subsidiary of BT Group PLC (BT.A.LN) 77,000 pounds ($101,645) for
sending nearly 5 million emails to customers without their
consent.
The emails, sent between December 2015 and November 2016 to
promote charity initiatives, constitute direct marketing and not
service messages, the commission said Wednesday. Since recipients
didn't give the necessary consent, the emails breached the U.K.'s
privacy and electronic-communications regulations, even though the
company didn't deliberately break the rules, the ICO said.
BT said it is disappointed by the decision and has tightened its
data-management procedures since the complaint was first raised in
February 2017.
"This relates to emails concerning charitable fundraising that
were sent to some of our customers in 2015/16. There was no
financial benefit to BT, and minimal impact on customers--in fact
almost 5 million emails elicited just one complaint," a BT
spokesperson said.
Write to Adria Calatayud at
adria.calatayudvaello@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 20, 2018 08:52 ET (12:52 GMT)
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