HelloFresh: food box subscription service fined £140k after sending millions of spam emails and texts to customers

Food box subscription service HelloFresh has been fined £170,000 after it sent 80m spam messages and email to customers.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said that 79m text messages and one million emails were sent during a spamming campaign targeting previous subscribers. The ICO also said that customers were not made aware that their data would be used for marketing purposes for up to 24 months after their subscription to the service ended.

The investigation, which began in March 2022 after the ICO received 14 complaints directly and 8,729 to the spam message reporting service, also found that the company continued to reach out some former customers who had explicitly requested that they no longer contact them. Andy Curry, head of investigations at the ICO, said: “This marked a clear breach of trust of the public by HelloFresh.

“Customers weren’t told exactly what they’d be opting into, nor was it clear how to opt out. From there, they were hit with a barrage of marketing texts they didn’t want or expect, and in some cases, even when they told HelloFresh to stop, the deluge continued. In issuing this fine, we are showing that we will take clear and decisive action where we find the law has not been followed. We will always protect the right of customers to choose how their data is used.

“The investigation that led to this fine began following complaints filed by the public, both to the ICO and to the 7726 service. This shows just how important it is that if you are being contacted with nuisance calls, texts or emails, that you report it straight away.”

A HelloFresh spokesman said: “Customers are at the centre of everything we do and we take our data protection obligations extremely seriously. Of the emails sent, the ICO only received three complaints. We have worked closely with the ICO, we have carefully considered their feedback and have made changes to our SMS and email policy.”