Moneysupermarket.com slapped with £80K fine for spam emails

Cheshire-based Moneysuperket.com has been hit with an £80,000 fine from the by the Information Commissioner’s Office for sending out 7.1 million spam emails.

They were sent to customers who had opted out of receiving direct marketing emails.

The messages, disguised as an invitation for people to accept promotional material, were sent between November 30 and December 10, 2016. 6.8 million were successfully received.

Messages 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.”

ICO head of enforcement Steve Eckersley said in a statement: “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.”

He went on to say that emails sent by companies “under the guise of ‘customer service’, checking or seeking their consent, is a circumvention of the rules and is unacceptable,” and that the ICO would continue to take action against them.

Moneysupermarket saw the value of its shares fall 10% yesterday as it admitted that profits would be at the lower end of expectations.

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