Popular meal-kit company HelloFresh has been hit with a paltry £140,000 ($178,000) fine after an investigation by Britain’s data privacy watchdog revealed the company sent more than 80 million unsolicited emails and text messages.
The Register reports that the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has found HelloFresh guilty of sending approximately 79 million spam emails and one million spam texts over just seven months. This major breach of common digital communication practices has raised serious concerns about the company’s marketing practices and adherence to data privacy laws.
We’ve fined HelloFresh £140,000 for sending 79 million spam emails and 1 million spam text messages during a 7 month marketing campaign.
Read more information about the fine: https://t.co/kGDEh5zQRk pic.twitter.com/qkJtMj7xUJ
— ICO – Information Commissioner’s Office (@ICOnews) January 12, 2024
HelloFresh, a service providing weekly packages of premeasured ingredients for home cooking, reportedly claimed that these messages were based on an opt-in statement, however, the ICO highlighted that this statement did not explicitly reference the sending of marketing messages via text. Although there was a mention of email marketing, it was included in an age confirmation statement, which the ICO criticized for potentially unfairly incentivizing customers to consent.
The ICO’s investigation, which spanned from August 23, 2021, to February 23, 2022, revealed that HelloFresh had sent a staggering 80,993,013 messages, including 79,779,279 emails and 1,113,734 texts. These actions were found to be in violation of Regulation 22 of the Private Electronic Communications Regulations.
Andy Curry, ICO head of investigations, stated: “This marked a clear breach of trust of the public by HelloFresh. Customers weren’t told exactly what they were opting into, nor was it clear how to opt out. From there, they were hit with a barrage of marketing texts they neither want nor expect, and in some cases, even when they told HelloFresh to stop, the deluge continued.”
He added: “In issuing this fine, we are showing that we will take clear and decisive action where we find the law had not been followed. We will always protect the right of customers to choose how their data is used.”
The ICO also received numerous complaints from recipients through its reporting service that even after requests to cease communications were made HelloFresh continued to send spam, appearing to ignore all legal requirements relating to spam.
The fine of just £140,000 does not seem likely to strike fear in the hearts of HelloFresh and other corporations that constantly clog our email inboxes and text messages with marketing messages.
Read more at The Register here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.