Fine imposed by Italian DPA on Enel Energia, amounting to €26.5 million for aggressive telemarketing.
The Italian DPA has imposed a fine of €26.5 million on Enel Energia for aggressive telemarketing according to this recent report. After hundreds of reports and complaints about unwanted promotional calls to customers from Enel Energia, Garante, the Italian DPA imposed a fine and also ordered the company to come into compliance with both national and European standards and regulations for data protection. The energy company was ordered to implement specific technical and organisational measures to handle data subjects’ requests to exercise their rights, particularly the right to object to the processing of their data for promotional purposes – and to provide feedback on those requests in no later than thirty days.
The fine imposed by the Italian DPA amounted to €26.5 million and came with orders to come into compliance with both national and European data protection regulations.
Enel Energia was fined €26.5 million for the unlawful processing of users’ personal data for marketing purposes. After receiving hundreds of reports of unsolicited calls, many of which used prerecorded messages and made it difficult for customers to exercise their rights where data protection is concerned. In particular the length of time it took to respond to requests concerning personal data was found to be an issue. It appears that the company did not have sufficient organizational structures in place to handle those requests in a timely manner. In addition to the fine, Enel Energia was ordered to come into compliance with both national and European data protection standards.
The Italian DPA has found an increase in cases of unsolicited promotional calls in the utilities industry with the upcoming switch to the unregulated market regime.
The Italian DPA has found generally that there has been a significant increase in cases in unsolicited promotional calls made without the required consent, and addressed to off-directory users or to users listed in the opt-out register within the gas and electric industry. In addition, responses to requests for personal data access or to object to processing for marketing purposes were either delayed or nonexistent. The Italian DPA noted a sharp increase in these issues within the utilities sector with the upcoming switch to the unregulated market regime for electricity and gas suppliers.
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