ICO Fines Company for Sending Thousands of Spam Text Messages During the Pandemic

The Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”)[1] has fined H&L Business Consulting Ltd (“H&L”) £80.000  for sending hundreds of thousands of text messages to people who had not consented to receive them.         

H&L Cumbria sent 378,538 unsolicited direct marketing text messages between January 2020 and July 2020. This resulted in more than 300 complaints.

The spam messages promoted a “government-backed” debt management scheme, despite the fact that the company was not authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority to provide regulated financial products or services.

The company director tried to evade the ICO investigations with different tactics since 2019, but investigators were determined to bring this company to account for plaguing people’s lives with thousands of spam messages.

H&L has also been issued with an enforcement notice by the ICO  ordering it to stop sending unlawful direct marketing messages.

You can reach further information here.

Kind regards,

Zumbul Attorneys at Law.

info@zumbul.av.tr


[1] The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent regulator for data protection and information rights law, upholding information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies, and data privacy for individuals.

The ICO can take action to change the behavior of organizations and individuals that collect, use, and keep personal information. This includes criminal prosecution, non-criminal enforcement, and audit.