BT Group plc (LON:BT.A) has been fined by regulators after sending nearly 5mln nuisance emails.
An investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office found that the troubled telecoms giant broke the law when it sent the marketing emails to customers without their consent.
READ: Deutsche Bank trims BT target price
“Organisations have a responsibility to ensure they are acting within the law,” said ICO head of enforcement Steve Eckersley.
“Where they do not, the ICO can and will take action. This particular investigation was prompted by a concerned member of the public. We investigated the matter and uncovered the full extent of this activity which shows how important it is for people to report nuisance emails.”
The 4.9mln emails were sent between December 2015 and November 2016 promoting three charities: the BT ‘My Donate’ platform, Giving Tuesday and Stand up to Cancer.
The ICO said the emails were not just service messages but direct marketing which had been delivered to people who had not given the necessary consent.
The regulator added that it did not believe that BT deliberately broke the rules, but it should have known the risks and taken reasonable steps to prevent them.
Tops off a rough 18 months
Although BT was only fined £77,000 for the breach, it is another bump in what has been a rocky road for the FTSE 100 group over the past 18 months or so.
Chief executive Gavin Patterson announced he was stepping down earlier this year, having stumble from one issue to another in recent times.
The accounting scandal in its Italian division last January rocked the market, while BT has more recently had to plough billions into its pension pot and cut thousands of jobs to prop up the bottom line.
It has also had to manage an increasingly difficult relationship with regulator Ofcom, which last March handed down a record £42mln fine to the group for delays in rolling out high-speed business lines.