Legal Update - Pay Day Loans & Unlawful Spamming

Data Protection – Monetary Penalty – Pay Day Loans – Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation – Unlawful Spam Texts

Yesterday the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) imposed a monetary penalty of £175,000 on the pay day loans company, First Financial, for breaching the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation (“PECR”) by sending out millions of unlawful spam texts.

Under the law, the PECR states that organisations must have individuals’ consents before sending them marketing messages by text. About 4,031 complaints had been made against messages that had been sent from mobile phone numbers belonging to First Financial. Although many of the spam texts were sent using unregistered SIM cards, the texts were all very similar and would refer the recipients to firstpaydayloanuk.co.uk.

First Financial’s sole director had previously been prosecuted for failing to notify the ICO that the company was processing personal information, which is a legal requirement.

This is a prime example of the importance of an organisation’s legal obligations when carrying out direct marketing and also the obligation to notify the ICO if the organisation is processing personal information.

How can we help?

Whether you are a start up or an established business, RT Coopers can assist you in meeting your obligations under the Data Protection Act as well as to meet your obligation when undertaking direct marketing activities. We conduct audits on businesses’ operations in order to determine specific weaknesses to be considered by data controllers. Once these are identified, we would advise you on the remedial measures you should put in place.

You may contact us by email [email protected]. Visit http://www.rtcoopers.com/practice_dataprotection.php

© RT COOPERS, 2013. This Briefing Note does not provide a comprehensive or complete statement of the law relating to the issues discussed nor does it constitute legal advice. It is intended only to highlight general issues. Specialist legal advice should always be sought in relation to particular circumstances.