The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined food delivery company HelloFresh £140,000 for a campaign of 79 million spam emails and one million spam texts over a seven-month period.

“In issuing this fine, we are showing that we will take clear and decisive action where we find the law has not been followed. We will always protect the right of customers to choose how their data is used,” Andy Curry, the head of investigations at the ICO decisively said.

HelloFresh failed to inform users that they would receive marketing via text in an opt-in statement where users agreed only to marketing emails.

Still, the reference to these emails was made in an age confirmation statement, which likely incentivised customers to agree.

Further, customers were not informed sufficiently that their data would continue to be used for marketing purposes for up to 24 months after cancelling their subscriptions.

As found in the ICO’s investigation which began in March 2022, HelloFresh continued to contact some individuals even after they had requested this to stop.

Specifically, the ICO found the company, officially called Grocery Delivery E-Services UK Limited, contravened regulation 22 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 and it has now been served with a fine of £140,000.

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“This marked a clear breach of trust of the public by HelloFresh. Customers weren’t told exactly what they’d be opting into, nor was it clear how to opt out,” Curry added. “From there, they were hit with a barrage of marketing texts they didn’t want or expect, and in some cases, even when they told HelloFresh to stop, the deluge continued.

“The investigation that led to this fine began following complaints filed by the public, both to the ICO and to the 7726 service. This shows just how important it is that if you are being contacted with nuisance calls, texts or emails, that you report it straight away.”