ICO fines bank and ad firm for illegal marketing

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined Vanquis Bank and advertising firm Xerpla £125,000 in total.

Vanquis Bank had sent over a million spam text messages and spam emails promoting its credit card. As the recipients had not given consent for such messages, Vanquis Bank’s marketing campaign was deemed illegal and a fine of £75,000 was imposed on the Bradford based bank.

Ad firm Xerpla had sent over a million spam emails promoting various products. The ad firm was fined £50,000 for not having the right consent of the recipients as it was not clear and specific enough.

“People need to be properly informed about what they are consenting to. Telling them their details could be passed to ‘similar organisations’ or ‘selected third parties’ cannot be relied upon as specific consent,” ICO Head of Enforcement Steve Eckersley said, adding, “these firms should have taken responsibility for ensuring they had obtained clear and specific consent for the sending of the messages. They didn’t and that is unacceptable.”