Easylife fine reduced to £250,000

The ICO imposed a fine of £1,350,000 on Easylife Limited in October 2022, for making marketing calls using data about purchasing transactions to infer health conditions, and for profiling customers based on special category data without consent. You can see the full ruling at https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-taken/mpns/4021801/easylife-limited-mpn-article-5-1-a-20221004.pdf

After an appeal and further consideration, the ICO has reached agreement to reduce the fine to £250,000 whilst standing by its findings. The ICO’s statement can be read in full at https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/media-centre/news-and-blogs/2023/03/ico-reaches-agreement-with-easylife-ltd/

It isn’t obvious why a reduced fine has been agreed, but a statement says

“As a pragmatic and proportionate regulator, my role is to ensure that we protect the public and ensure businesses abide by the law.

“Easylife has confirmed that it has stopped the unlawful processing which formed the basis of the ICO’s concerns. Having considered the amount of the penalty again during the course of the litigation, in light of the issues raised by Easylife, I considered that a reduction was appropriate.”

John Edwards, UK Information Commissioner

This is separate from a £130,000 fine that Easylife received in October 2022 for being responsible for more than 1.3 million unsolicited direct marketing calls.