We Buy Any Car Limited – €234,000 Fine (United Kingdom, 2021)

We Buy Any Car Limited ('WBAC') is a car valuation and purchasing company. Individuals can input details about their vehicle to get a fixed-price valuation. Individuals complained that they received unsolicited marketing texts from WBAC. The Information Commissioner's Office ('ICO'), started an investigation based on the complaints between October 2019 and January 2020. WBAC stated that they only contact individuals that request vehicle valuation. They claimed that these messages were either sent on the request of individuals or on the basis of the "soft opt-in". WBAC informed the ICO that 207.7 million email messages were sent (205.5m delivered) between April 2019 and April 2020. These messages were: * 92.3 million “journey” emails requested by the individuals asking for a valuation; * 107.6 million “batch” emails sent to customers between 30 days and 4 years since their last valuation; and * 7.8 million “good news” emails where the valuation offer has increased. WBAC also sent 16.3 million SMS between April 2019 and April 2020. 4.2 million ("batch" and "good news" messages) were marketing, 3.6 million of which were delivered. The Information Commissioner's Office considered that the "journey" messages were unsolicited marketing because the individuals had not specifically requested them, even if WBAC had informed individuals about them. The ICO concluded that the emails were marketing emails rather than services messages, as defined in the ICO's [https://icosearch.ico.org.uk/s/redirect?collection=ico-meta&url=https%3A%2F%2Fico.org.uk%2Fmedia%2Ffor-organisations%2Fdocuments%2F1555%2Fdirect-marketing-guidance.pdf&auth=1%2FjAB%2BSoVBL7Bc0wn%2B%2B6Wg&profile=_default&rank=4&query=marketing Direct Marketing Code of Practice], because they contained marketing elements even if it wasn't the main purpose. Of all the messages delivered the ICO considered that only 14.1 million were solicited, versus 191.4 million unsolicited marketing emails. The company was therefore