A loan matching service has been fined £70,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for sending more than two million illegal marketing texts. London-based Nouveau Finance specialises in sourcing short-term unsecured loans for consumers and has been ordered by the ICO to stop sending out unlawful texts. Although there were only 92 complaints made about the messages, an ICO investigation revealed that the company had sent out 2.2 million messages without consent. Nouveau Finance, which is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), contracted a marketing services company to carry out a six-month text campaign. However, it failed to check that the company hired had complied with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). The people contacted had not given permission to receive the messages and the company didn’t identify who they were from. All of these failings broke the law. Steve Eckersley, the ICO’s head of enforcement, said: “Relying on another company to do your marketing is not a get-out clause when it comes to the law......Read more here