October 17, 2016

Rainbow (UK) Ltd, based in Barnet, has been fined £20,000 for breach of regulation 22 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.

An ICO investigation found that Rainbow sent 21,000 spam texts over four months last year containing the following message:

“Get a CASH loan of up to 1000 pounds today! Apply now at www.payday-loansfor.me.uk/m and get your money in 10 mins. To opt out reply STOP.”

The scale of the contravention could have been much larger as Rainbow had attempted to send more than half a million text messages, but due to a technical error only 21,045 were successfully transmitted.

Organisations can only send marketing text messages to people who have specifically consented to receiving them.  Any organisation buying marketing lists from suppliers must carry out rigorous checks to make sure that the third party has obtained the data fairly and lawfully and that they have the necessary consent.  Rainbow failed to do this.  The ICO was therefore satisfied that Rainbow did not have the necessary consent within the meaning of regulation 22(2) of the PECR and was therefore in breach.

ICO Head of Enforcement, Mr Eckersley, said: “The buck stops with the company sending the marketing texts to ensure they are complying with the law.  It’s no excuse to rely on the supplier who gave you the names and numbers.”  To read the ICO’s news release in full and for a link to the Monetary Penalty Notice, click here.