In August 2019, March and September 2020, the DPC received three complaints from individuals regarding unsolicited marketing telephone calls, text messages and emails they had received from Vodafone Ireland Limited. In response to the DPC’s investigation of the first complaint, Vodafone Ireland Limited explained that the former customer had called Vodafone Ireland Limited on seven separate occasions to try to opt-out of receiving marketing phone calls to their mobile phone. On each occasion the agent they spoke to did not follow proper procedures and this resulted in the former customer not being opted out of marketing and receiving further marketing calls. The complainant closed his account with Vodafone Ireland Limited and switched to another operator due to the marketing phone calls he received.

In the other two cases, the complainants are existing customers of Vodafone Ireland Limited. In one case, the customer received a marketing call to their mobile phone number in February 2019 and during that call the customer told the caller that they did not want to receive further marketing calls. Despite this request, Vodafone Ireland Limited subsequently made a further twelve marketing phone calls to the complainant’s mobile phone as its agent did not take any action to change the complainant’s marketing preferences.

In the other case, the complainant completed a transfer of ownership form on which they clearly set out their marketing preferences not to receive any marketing communications from Vodafone Ireland Limited. The agent handling the transaction failed to follow a process to input the customer’s marketing preferences. As a result, the customer subsequently received a further 14 unsolicited marketing messages — seven emails and seven text messages.

The DPC had previously prosecuted Vodafone Ireland Limited in 2019, 2018, 2013 and 2011 for breaching Regulation 13 of the ePrivacy Regulations in relation to previous complaints. Accordingly, the DPC decided to proceed to another prosecution arising from these complaint cases.

At Dublin Metropolitan District Court on 6 September 2021, Vodafone Ireland Limited pleaded guilty to seven charges under Regulation 13(1) and 13(6)(a) of the ePrivacy Regulations. The District Court convicted Vodafone Ireland Limited on seven charges and imposed fines totalling €1,400. Vodafone Ireland Limited agreed to discharge the DPC’s legal costs.