On 26 March 2019, the Information Commissioner’s Office (the ICO) published a press release confirming it had fined Grove Pension Solutions Limited £40,000 for breaching the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR) by being responsible for almost two million spam direct marketing emails.
The ICO decided Grove Pensions Solutions Limited had instructed a marketing agent to use third party email providers to carry out hosted marketing campaigns that advertised the company’s services.
Grove Pensions Solutions Limited has sought advice from a data protection consultancy and legal advice on its planned activity. But the ICO decided Grove Pensions Solutions Limited received “misleading advice”. For more information, please see the Monetary Penalty Notice.
This penalty notice shows two things: (a) the ICO’s continued enforcement action for breaches of PECR and (b) the importance of good advice.