Morrisons slapped with fine for breaking marketing rules

Supermarket chain Morrisons has been fined for sending more than one hundreds thousands marketing emails to people that had opted out, breaching regulations.

The Information Commissioner’s Office(ICO) found after an investigation that Morrisons had deliberately sent 130,671 emails to Morrisons More card holders that had already opted out of receiving marketing emails, and fined it £10,500.

They were entitled ‘Your Account Details’ and invited customers to change their marketing preferences to start receiving money off coupons, extra More Points and the latest news from Morrisons.

The emails were sent in October and November 2016, breaking the law on how people’s personal information should be treated when sending marketing emails, said the ICO.

A Morrisons spokesperson said: “We sent out an information message to a small percentage of our customers that aimed to provide some helpful information about our service.

“We did this with the best of intentions and we’re disappointed that this was deemed to be ‘marketing material’.”

Deputy commissioner Simon Entwisle of the ICO said: “It is vital that the public can trust companies to respect their wishes when it comes to how their personal information is used for marketing.

“These customers had explicitly told Morrisons they didn’t want marketing emails about their More card. Morrisons ignored their decision and for that we’ve taken action.”

A new data protection law comes into force next year that sets a high bar for the consent organisations must obtain from customers before using their personal data for marketing, it warned.