March 25, 2019

The ICO has fined Vote Leave Ltd £40,000 for sending out thousands of unsolicited text messages in the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum.

An ICO investigation found that Vote Leave sent 196,154 text messages promoting the aims of the Leave campaign and the majority contained a link to its website. Vote Leave was unable to provide evidence that the people who received the messages had given their consent.

Vote Leave claimed the information it had used to contact people was obtained from enquiries which had come through their website from individuals who had responded via text to promotional leaflets and from entrants to a football competition.

However, the organisation said that following the conclusion of the referendum campaign it had deleted evidence of the consent relied upon to send the messages. Also deleted, the ICO said, were details of the phone numbers the messages were sent from, the volume of messages sent, and the volume of messages received.

The ICO says that this latest fine is part of its ongoing investigation into the use of data in political campaigns. As a result of the investigation the ICO has taken action against a number of different organisations engaged in campaigning for breaches of direct marketing and data protection laws. For further information, click here.