19/05/2017

A firm that sent millions of spam texts about mobile phone upgrades has been fined £100,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office for breaking strict rules relating to the consent required from people before marketing messages are sent to them.

‘Onecom Limited monetary penalty notice’ reveals that texts sent by Onecom Limited of Fareham, Hampshire between 26 October 2015 and 2 June 2016 resulted in 1,050 complaints being sent to the spam text reporting service (on 7726), or directly to ICO.

The firm could neither explain the source of the data used to send the messages nor provide the ICO with evidence that it had consent to send them. It did reveal, however, that it had sent 3.3m text messages between 1 October 2015 and 31 March 2016.

The ICO recently imposed a record £400,000 penalty on Keurboom Communications Limited for making 99.5m automated calls over 18 months. The Onecom Limited penalty provides further confirmation that the ICO is cracking down on breaches of the  ‘Direct Marketing: Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations’ which – together with  the Data Protection Act – give people specific rights in relation to electronic communications.