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Airline Fined For Sending 3.3 Million Unwanted Emails (bbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the stop-the-madness dept.

The airline Flybe has been fined 70,000 pound ($87,000) for sending more than 3.3 million marketing emails to people who had opted out of receiving them. From a report on BBC: The emails, sent in August 2016, advised people to amend out-of-date personal information and update their marketing preferences. They also gave people the chance to enter a prize draw. But the regulator said Flybe should have obtained people's consent before sending the emails. "Sending emails to determine whether people want to receive marketing, without the right consent, is still marketing, and it is against the law," said Steve Eckersley, head of enforcement at the Information Commissioner's Office. "In Flybe's case, the company deliberately contacted people who had already opted out of emails from them."

18 comments

  1. at that price... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    they should keep going.

    1. Re:at that price... by Z00L00K · · Score: 2

      The fine should have been £10 per mail sent.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    2. Re:at that price... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      The fine should have been £10 per mail sent.

      That's 500 times the actual fine. All that would do would be to convince the airline to spend money trying to take power away from these bureaucrats.

      All the voters care about is that the government is "doing something" - it doesn't matter at all if that "something" is effective.

      This kind of tiny fine keeps the companies happy, the voters happy, and the bureaucrats happy. The minute percentage of the population that knows it's a scam does not matter - they still have to pay taxes anyway.

      RESOLVED WONTFIX

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  2. That's a reasonable hire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So for the cost of 1 or 2 new hires, they generated potentially how much in revenue?

  3. Typical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    And where does the money go? Oh that's right, government coffers. So the "victims" of this "crime" get nothing as usual.

  4. Small Fine by Luthair · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Companies send out emails because they're effectively free, even with the fine they still reached 3.3-million people for $87,000 which is practically nothing. Printing flyers and mailing them to 3.3-million homes would likely cost millions of dollars, to my mind the fine should be higher than the cost of mailing the flyers.

    1. Re:Small Fine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While you are right that they did get a good deal on the marketing front- and I'd argue it may very well be worth continuing if they had a 1% response rate and made $9 or so in profit off each person based off this fine (assuming future fines don't cost more) I don't agree that what they did should necessarily be illegal. It may have been unethical to send emails to those whom opted out of the email list where said emails were collected for marketing purposes. However if they were initiating a marketing list from customers for the first time then it does not seem unreasonable to me to simply give their customers the option of opting out. That would be ethical regardless of legality.

      When you connect to the internet your agreeing to receive whatever is sent your way. If you don't like that you have to put in place filtering systems to hinder unwanted packets. But your still agreed to receive those packets. The internet isn't governed and while people may be arrested, fined, etc for sending unwanted packets the reality is at the end of the day you can't stop it through legal means. The internet is world wide and there is no law except for maybe treason that exists everywhere. Therefore your actually putting a burden only on those whom are your neighbours to the disadvantage of those operating from overseas. The answer to unwanted mail should be technical in nature- not legal.

    2. Re:Small Fine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is that you Sven?

    3. Re:Small Fine by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      That fine is 3% of their 2016 profit.

      2016 is also the first time in 6 years the company made any money, a company that was considering filing for bankruptcy in 2015. The fine isn't that small all things considered.

  5. How About Apple? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    After opting out of Apple emails several years ago, they suddenly started sending me at least one email a day this past week. Going into my preferences, Apple had unilaterally checked that I wanted every type of email that they send. So I had to once again opt out. Besides being Apple, why the heck do they think it's alright to ignore a user's preferences and start sending them spam?

    capcha: irksome

    1. Re:How About Apple? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's different. Apple is an American company - good luck getting a US court to give a fuck about your opt out.

    2. Re: How About Apple? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They have a presence in the EU. EU can fine then for violating EU law.

    3. Re:How About Apple? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Same here, and also from both SlickDeals and Woot. I haven't received any email from these companies in *years*, and suddenly started getting daily promotions from them. I went looking to see if our wonderful government had repealed some spam legislation but I couldn't find anything relevant. Still not sure why multiple companies who had been radio-silent for years all began cranking out the ads this month.

  6. Victims bout to be paid! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh, wait.

  7. That's only 3 cents per email. by nbritton · · Score: 1

    That's only 3 cents per email.... worth it, and would do it again. The minimum they should have been fined for each message is whatever the postage is for a first class letter.