10,000 € fine to a company in the Digital Marketing sector for sending advertising mailings
What happens if a company sends advertising mailings without accreditation of the recipient?
The Spanish Data Protection Agency has imposed a fine of 10,000 euros on a company in the digital marketing sector for sending advertising e-mails without having reliably accredited the consent of the recipients.
The case was initiated following a complaint from a user who claimed to receive daily commercial communications without having provided his data and who, when trying to unsubscribe through the link included in the messages, was redirected to a page where he was asked for more personal data.
The company's defense was based on an internal certificate with an email and IP. The AEPD made it clear: that is not enough. The person responsible for the communications must be able to demonstrate with solid evidence when, how and for what purpose consent was given, what information was presented to the user and what workflow the process followed. In other words, verifiable logs and records are needed, not mere declarations.
Authorization and consent
The Agency recalled that the controller of marketing communications must be accountable for obtaining consent and the mechanisms used to obtain it. In a digital environment, it is not sufficient to display a form or a static configuration on a website, but it is essential to retain information about the session in which consent was given, documentation of the workflow followed and a copy of the information that was presented to the user at that time.
The regulation gives flexibility on how to document this consent to such advertising mailings, but the requirement is clear: it must be possible to prove who, when, how and for what purpose the consent was given, as well as the information provided to the data subject at the time of collection. This obligation remains in place as long as the processing continues and must be verifiable in the event of an audit or inspection. If there is no technical evidence, the risk is obvious: financial penalties, loss of confidence and reputational damage.
