The CNIL fines Total Energies Electricité et Gaz France €1 million for violating laws regarding direct email marketing. Short on time? We’ve compiled this news into a quick post for your convenience.
Context
CNIL received several complaints about the difficulties encountered by users when requesting access to their data and opposition to receiving calls for commercial prospecting by the French energy producer and supplier, Total Energies Electricité et Gaz France.
Based on the findings made during the investigation, the CNIL imposed a fine of €1 million against Total Energies Electricité et Gaz France.
The fine was decided after taking the breaches retained into account and all the measures taken by the company during the procedure to comply.
CNIL’s investigation: Total Energies
On its website, the business provided a form for signing up for an energy contract in which the user acknowledged their consent to using their personal information to get future commercial offers without the option to object.
By completing this form, the user renounced their right to object to using his data for commercial prospecting for comparable products or services, which is against the law (Article L. 34-5 of the Postal and Electronic Communications Code or CPCE).
CNIL’s investigations also turned up three additional issues that were also present in the sanction decision:
- A breach of the obligation to inform users approached by telephone (Article 14 of the GDPR). Essential information concerning the processing of their data was not communicated to the users. They were also not offered the possibility of accessing more information.
- A violation of the GDPR’s Article 15 responsibility to protect data subjects’ “rights of access data” and Article 21 “right of opposition.” The business ignored complainants’ requests who wanted access to their personal information and stopped receiving calls for commercial prospecting.
- A failure to follow the law regulating how to exercise rights (Article 12 of the GDPR). The company failed to respond to requests for the exercise of law within the one month provided.
