Italian DPA issues €16.7 million to Wind Telecommunications for violation of GDPR

On July 13, 2020,  the Italian DPA- Garante issued a €16,700,000 ($18.6 million) GDPR fine to telecommunication operator – Wind Tre S.p.A.

The Italian Garante has increased its activities in 2020 with Italy becoming a country with the highest-grossing fines in the EU.

The fine was issued due to unlawful processing of personal data for marketing purposes when more than a hundred clients filed a complaint about unsolicited marketing emails that included calls and SMS, as well as listing their phone numbers on public phonebooks against their wish.

The reason behind the multimillion fine was the fact that clients weren’t able to withdraw their consent since the company’s data protection policy did not provide all the necessary information.

Garante’s investigation uncovered violations of:

• Principles relating to processing of personal data – Art. 5
• The lawfulness of processing Art. 6,
• Transparent information, communication, and modalities for the exercise of the rights of the data subject Art. 12,
• Responsibility of the controller Art. 24
• Data protection by design and by default Art. 25