The Money Hive Limited – €58,500 Fine (United Kingdom, 2022)
General GDPR enforcement action
This case relates to broader data protection obligations, not specifically to cookie or consent banner compliance. It is not included in cookie statistics or the Risk Calculator.
The UK's Information Commissioner's Office fined The Money Hive Limited for sending over 750,000 unsolicited text messages about payday loans. These messages were sent without proper consent from the recipients. This case highlights the importance of obtaining clear consent before sending marketing messages.
What happened
The Money Hive Limited sent over 750,000 unsolicited text messages promoting payday loans without proper consent.
Who was affected
People who had previously started a loan application with The Money Hive Limited but did not complete it.
What the authority found
The ICO found that The Money Hive Limited violated GDPR by sending marketing texts without valid consent from recipients.
Why this matters
This fine underscores the need for companies to ensure they have clear and explicit consent before sending marketing communications. Businesses should review their consent processes to avoid similar penalties.
GDPR Articles Cited
National Law Articles
The Money Hive Limited (TMHL) is a company that calls itself "a short term loan lender and broker for other lenders and financial service providers". Mobile UK is an entity representing the interests of mobile subscribers in the UK. Mobile UK has a Spam Reporting Service, and subscribers can report a spam message by forwarding the spam message to Mobile UK. In September 2020, numerous unsolicited text messages by Money Hive were reported. The Investigating Officer ascertained nine separate message scripts promoting high-interest payday loans. The messages contained links to websites operated by TMHL and were sent to people who had “previously applied online for a loan with a TMHL-operated website” but had left the process midway to due to any reason. In response to the ICO’s letter seeking information and documentation about consent provided by the subscribers, TMHL stated the following: • It had used the services of two platform providers to send the messages. • Between 1 January 2020 to 8 September 2020, a total of 752,425 text messages were received by subscribers. • TMHL divided consent into two categories: “a) Individuals consent to being notified of their loan application results via SMS; and b) individuals consent to future marketing from it and "select 3rd parties" via separate tick boxes.” It added that "a very small number of customers might not realise that the messages are direct responses to their loan application and consider them to be marketing texts". The ICO considered the 'customer journey' documents provided by TMHL and noticed two opt-in statements. Opt-in 1 was accessible after a customer had clicked 'apply now' on the respective website and had entered their contact details. It had the following text, followed by three separate optional tick boxes for email/SMS/phone: "LoanPig and our 3rd party partners would like to stay in touch with you via email and sms to send you reminders and occasional relevant offers, please tick below if you
Related Enforcement Actions (0)
No other enforcement actions found for The Money Hive Limited in UK
This is the only recorded action for this entity in this jurisdiction.
Details
Fine Date
14 February 2022
Authority
Information Commissioner's Office
Fine Amount
€58,500
50,000 GBP
GDPRhub ID
gdprhub-4671About this data
Cite as: Cookie Fines. The Money Hive Limited - United Kingdom (2022). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu
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