The ICO has fined an online recruitment firm £130,000 after several spam emails were sent out to individuals over a one year period.
A UK-based online recruitment firm, Join the Triboo Limited, has been fined £130,000 by the ICO for sending 107 million spam emails between October 2019 and October 2020 to individuals seeking employment. According to this report from the ICO, the emails, which were received by these individuals, offered money-back guarantees or encouraged them to register and apply for roles through their website. The spam emails were sent using various addresses in order to avoid being detected. This was a violation of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and resulted in a fine from the ICO.
The organisation failed to obtain consent, and also failed to provide recipients with the option to opt out of receiving these messages.
Join the Triboo Limited was found to have breached various regulations and was fined £130,000 by the ICO for sending those 107 million spam emails over a one-year period.The recruitment firm violated regulations, including failing to obtain consent from recipients or giving them a choice to opt-out of receiving the emails. Recipients were also not informed of the company’s identity, which is required by law. According to the ICO, as a result of the spam emails, a significant number of complaints were received from people, who had been inundated with unwanted messages. The ICO’s action sends a strong message to companies engaging in spamming that they must comply with regulations or they risk facing significant penalties.
The aim of such fines is to discourage companies from engaging in spamming and other unsolicited digital marketing activities.
This is not the first time that the ICO has taken action in relation to spam emails. ICO issued over £2 million in penalties against rogue companies for nuisance calls, texts and emails in 2022, with some of these investigations, and later, enforcements being initiated after just one complaint. The ICO continues to monitor companies to ensure that they are compliant with regulations, and has made it clear that any company found to be in breach risks facing enforcement action and severe penalties. The aim of such fines is to discourage companies from engaging in spamming and other unsolicited digital marketing activities.
