ISP BT Fined £77K for Sending 5 Million SPAM Emails to UK Customers

Broadband ISP BT has been hit with a £77,000 fine by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) after they unlawfully sent 4,930,141 emails (between December 2015 and November 2016) to customers in order to promote three charity initiatives (i.e. the BT ‘My Donate’ platform, Giving Tuesday and Stand up to Cancer).

The provider agreed that many of the emails were “unlawful“, although they initially disputed the assessment that the ‘My Donate’ emails were direct marketing. However, the ICO ruled that all of the emails, which were delivered to recipients who had not given the necessary consent, “constituted marketing and were not simply service messages“.

On the upside the ICO agreed that BT “did not deliberately break the rules,” but they said the provider should have “known the risks and it failed to take reasonable steps to prevent them.”

Steve Eckersley, ICO Head of Enforcement, said:

“Organisations have a responsibility to ensure they are acting within the law. Where they do not, the ICO can and will take action. This particular investigation was prompted by a concerned member of the public. We investigated the matter and uncovered the full extent of this activity which shows how important it is for people to report nuisance emails.”

A BT Spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk:

“We are disappointed that the Information Commissioner’s Office has confirmed its intention to issue BT with a monetary penalty.

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.

We are pleased that the ICO has acknowledged that this was not a deliberate contravention of regulations. In turn, we have accepted the facts set out by the ICO, and have apologised. We immediately tightened our procedures when the complaint was originally raised in February 2017 – as part of our robust and ongoing commitment to the highest standards of data management.”

You can read the ICO’s full report online (PDF format). The fine will be reduced to £61,600 if BT pays by 20th July 2018 and doesn’t appeal the decision.

UPDATE 1:35pm

Added a comment from BT above.