The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) announced a £100,000 fine imposed on the
telecoms company, EE Limited (EE), for breaching the Privacy and
Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR). The timing of
the breach meant that the General Data Protection Regulation
2016/679 (GDPR) was not applicable.
What happened?
EE sent customers a text message encouraging them to use the
'My EE' app and to consider upgrading their mobile
handsets. A second round of messages was also sent to customers. In
total, around 2.5 million text messages were sent by EE to
customers who had not provided their consent in early 2018.
Breach
EE's position was that the text messages sent were service
messages and not covered by the electronic marketing rules. The
text messages, however, were found to contain promotional content
encouraging customers to buy further products and services.
