The Italian data protection authority (Garante) has issued three big fines in a row.
First they fined a business €16.7 million for several unlawful data processing activities in relation to direct marketing practices.
In particular, unsolicited communications, sent without previous consent, through SMS, email and phone calls.
In addition, the information contained in the business’s privacy policy was incomplete in relation to the means of contact used.
Garante also found various deficiencies in the management of GDPR-compliant contracts with third-party partners.
In addition to the fine, Garante ordered the adoption of adequate technical and organisational measures to effectively control third-party partners.
A second fine of the amount of €800,000 was issued because a business had violated the data protection rules in relation to the processing for direct marketing purposes, in particular the storage of clients’ data.
A third fine was issued for €200,000 because a business carried out, through a third-party provider, telemarketing activities but without having a GDPR-compliant contract in place.
Insight
These fines issued by the Italian data protection authority, all imposed in close proximity recently, seem to show that the regulators are ‘catching up’ on a backload of work and focusing on data protection compliance failures in marketing activities.
If your organisation is looking to comply with the requirements of the GDPR then take a look at how our CSaaS and DPaaS solutions can help.