American Express (Amex), a New York-based financial services company was slapped with a penalty of £90,000 for spamming customers with unwanted marketing emails, despite their unsubscription from the service.
The penalty was pronounced by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) of the UK as the company directed over 4 million marketing emails to its customers to increase sales.
After receiving several complaints from the customers in the UK, the ICO launched an investigation in which it was proved that the American Express Services Europe indulged in a severe marketing campaign that eventually transpired into a spamming campaign where customers were annoyed on receiving dozens of emails that were irrelevant to them.
Amex denied the allegations on an initiate note as it argued that the emails were meant for various servicing campaigns where the content was intended to inform customers on how to get most from their online shopping through rewards, cash backs, and app-related campaigns.
But later when ICO provided the evidence to prove that Amex spammed most of the customers by sending more than 4.5 million emails, out of which only 50,000 of them contained the above-said content. The financial organizations bowed down to the claims as the evidence pointed at the company that is indulged in a deliberate marketing campaign for financial gains.
With no other choice, American Express decided to review its marketing model and stated that it will not let this happen in the future.
Also, the company has the privilege to appeal for a decrease in the penalty as the business is witnessing a slow down due to the global Coronavirus pandemic.
Amex has assured that it will re-work its marketing tactics and will try its best to not spam the mailboxes of its customers. At the same time, the company is also looking for ways on how it can create awareness of its service campaigns among its customers.
Note- Andy Curry, the head of ICO has also informed the media that American Express will also face another case against it for breaching the privacy of its customers by making untimely wrong calls.
