Eni Gas e Luce – €8,500,000 Fine (Italy, 2019)

The Italian supervisory authority imposed two fines totalling EUR 11,5 million on Eni Gas and Luce (Egl) for unlawful processing of personal data in the context of advertising activities and activation of unsolicited contracts. The first fine of EUR 8.5 million relates to the unlawful processing in connection with telemarketing and telesales activities. Amongst others, promotional calls were made without the consent of the person contacted or despite that person's refusal to receive promotional calls, or without triggering the special procedures for checking the public opt-out register. In addition, there was lack of technical and organisational measures to take account of the information provided by users; data was processed longer than the permitted data retention periods; and data on potential customers was collected from entities (list providers) who had not obtained consent to the disclosure of such data.