·
Honda Motor Europe (HME) were fined by the Information
Commissioners Office ( ICO) on 20thMarch 2017
breach of data protection laws in marketing. Honda were warned they could
receive a fine up £500,000. They were Honda were fined £13,000.00.
As of May 2018 with the new General Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR) these fines will increase to up to 4% of a company’s worldwide
turnover.
·
HME sent 289,790 emails to customers seeking to clarify the
customer’s choice for receiving marketing emails. HME said that they
believed the emails were not marketing emails but were
customer service emails to help the company comply with data protection laws in
clarifying customers’ choices for receiving marketing.
·
HME couldn’t provide evidence that the customers had ever given
consent to receive emails of the type that were sent and that was a breach of
the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations (PECR) under which a
company must show how it has obtained consent (we will not go into details here
but can send information if you require it).
·
In HME case, HME received the customer details from their
authorized dealers, through their website, during promotional events where
customers could sign up on completion of a disclaimer form relating to
activities at the event.
·
Each dealer is a separate legal entity but they are expected to
comply with data protection laws and adhere to these. The customer’s data is
input to the HME database by the dealers. The relevant consents are recorded on
the database; however, completion of the preferences field was not mandatory
and dealers had not completed these in some cases.
·
HME sent out the emails but it was not clear on what basis they
had consent to so do.They sent the emails to those who had previously
indicated some form of marketing consent but again it was not clear what the
preferences were.
·
It was decided by the Information Commissioner that
although this was not deliberate action on the part of Honda this was negligent
action on then part of Honda because they knew or ought to have known that
there was a risk that data protection laws would be contravened.
·
If you are conducting marketing activities now is a good time to
review your marketing practices in time to put in measures to help you assess
data risk and implement data compliance before the new GDPR comes into effect;
you may then be faced with subject access requests or worse still
investigations.
Nath
solicitors -business litigation lawyers in london are specialists in
advising businesses on the new GDPR and can help you with your marketing
assessment and activities to ensure data risk assessment and compliance
in in place before the new GDPR is implemented.
The above is not legal advice but intended as a guide ; if you require
further information please do not hesitate to contact us for further information.
Contact
Details:
Nath Solicitors Limited
59 Alleyn Road, Dulwich,
London,SE21 8AD
London,SE21 8AD
Tel: +44(0) 203 670 5540
Mob: +44
(0) 7545 813 894
URL —https://www.nathsolicitors.co.uk/
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