The telecommunications giant sent out five million emails to customers promoting three charity initiatives

A telecommunications giant has been fined for sending millions of spam charity emails.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) has hit with a £77,000 fine from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) after it sent almost five million nuisance emails to customers.

A probe by the regulator found that the company did not have consent to send out the emails promoting three charity initiatives: the BT My Donate platform, Giving Tuesday and Stand up to Cancer.

During the investigation, BT accepted that emails for Giving Tuesday and Stand up to Cancer were unlawful but disputed the assessment that My Donate emails were direct marketing. The 4.9 million emails were sent between December 2015 and November 2016.

The commissioner found that all of the emails sent constituted marketing and were relevant to the service that customers had signed up to.

ICO head of enforcement, Steve Eckersley, said: “Organisations have a responsibility to ensure they are acting within the law. Where they do not, the ICO can and will take action.

“This particular investigation was prompted by a concerned member of the public. We investigated the matter and uncovered the full extent of this activity which shows how important it is for people to report nuisance emails.”

A BT spokesperson said: “We are disappointed that the Information Commissioner’s Office has confirmed its intention to issue BT with a monetary penalty.

"There was no financial benefit to BT, and minimal impact on customers – in fact almost five million emails elicited just one complaint.

"We immediately tightened our procedures when the complaint was originally raised in February 2017 – as part of our robust and ongoing commitment to the highest standards of data management.”