Virgin Media fined £50,000 for sending marketing emails without consent

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Virgin Media has been fined £50,000 for sending marketing emails to customers who had not consented to receiving them, the Information Commissioner’s Office said. “You have currently said no to receiving marketing messages from us, which means that we are not able to keep you up to date with our latest TV, broadband, phone and mobile news, competitions, product and bundle offers via online, email, post, SMS phone.” The complainant described the email as “basically a service message dressed up as an attempt to get me to opt back in to marketing communications”. “We will always protect the public and take action against companies where we find serious breaches of the law.” A Virgin Media spokesman said: “While the email communication sent to customers did not advertise our products or services, we do not plan to appeal the ICO’s decision, and we will continue to fully respect our customers’ marketing preferences.”