A company that sent spam emails selling face masks during the pandemic has been fined £40,000 by the ICO and issued with an enforcement notice. Studios MG Ltd, a London-based software consultancy, tried to exploit the public health emergency by sending up to 9,000 unlawful marketing emails to people without their permission. The emails were sent on 30 April in the midst of the pandemic. The ICO investigation found that the company was not involved in the business of supplying PPE, but that the director had decided to buy face masks to sell on at a profit.

The ICO also found that after it initially contacted Studios MG Ltd, the company deleted a database of key evidence which would have shown the full extent of the volume of emails they had sent. Studios MG Ltd randomly collected a list of contacts from a number of various sources, including the company director’s LinkedIn and email contacts.


Source: ICO