Join The Triboo Limited v The Information Commissioner
| Judge | TRIBUNAL MEMBER PAUL TAYLOR |
| Judgment Date | 02 May 2024 |
| Neutral Citation | [2024] UKFTT 362 (GRC) |
| Counsel | Robin Hopkins,Eric Metcalfe,For |
| Date | 02 May 2024 |
| Year | 2024 |
| Court | First-tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber) |
Case Reference: EA-2023-0252-FP
Neutral Citation Number: [2024] UKFTT 00362 (GRC)
First-tier Tribunal
General Regulatory Chamber
(Monetary Penalty Notice)
Heard on: 7 March 2024
Panel deliberations: 19 April 2024
Heard by: CVP
Decision given on: 2 May 2024
Before
TRIBUNAL JUDGE SOPHIE BUCKLEY
TRIBUNAL MEMBER DAVE SIVERS
TRIBUNAL MEMBER PAUL TAYLOR
Between
JOIN THE TRIBOO LIMITED
Appellant
and
THE INFORMATION COMMISIONER
Respondent
Representation:
For the Appellant: Robin Hopkins (Counsel)
For the Respondent: Eric Metcalfe (Counsel)
Decision:
1. The appeal against the Monetary Penalty Notice is dismissed.
2. The Monetary Penalty Notice is confirmed.
3. The tribunal will determine the appeal against the Enforcement Notice after it
has received further submissions/evidence in accordance with the separate case
management order.
REASONS
Introduction
1. Join the Triboo Ltd (‘JTT’) is a web services provider operating a number of job
search websites and savings websites. Its principal activities are web publicity
display, e-mail marketing and mobile marketing services and client recruitment
campaigns through the internet and affiliate marketing. It supplies marketing
data to third parties and carry out direct marketing by email on behalf of other
companies (referred to as hosted electronic marketing).
2. In a Notice of Appeal dated 10 May 2023 JTT seeks to challenge a Monetary
Penalty Notice (‘MPN’) imposing a fine of £130,000 and an Enforcement Notice
(‘EN’) both issued on 12 April 2023. The MPN and EN contain findings that JTT
had contravened regulation 22 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications
Regulations 2003 (PECR) by means of sending unsolicited emails for direct
marketing purposes over the period 1 August 2019 to 19 August 2020.
3. At that start of the hearing, we determined that JTT was entitled to raise certain
arguments included in its skeleton argument without any need to apply to
amend the grounds of appeal.
4. The Judge apologises to the parties for the delay in promulgating the decision.
This was due to the need to reconvene for panel deliberations, because there was
insufficient time to deliberate on the day of the hearing. Partly as a result of
panel availability over the Easter break, it was not possible to reconvene earlier
than 19 April 2024.
5. This is a lengthy decision. Much of this decision consists of the factual
background and a summary of the pleadings and submissions, with which the
parties are already familiar. For the benefit of the parties the discussions and
conclusions begin at paragraph 189 on page 40.
Factual background
6. We make these findings on the balance of probabilities.
7. In the course of the Commissioner’s investigation into Leads Work Limited
(LWL) for sending unsolicited direct marketing messages in breach of regulation
22 PECR, LWL informed the Commissioner that it purchased data from, inter
alia, JTT.
8. The Commissioner wrote to JTT on 24 August 2020. In its reply JTT identified 20
companies to whom it had sold its users’ data between 1 August 2019 and 24
August 2020. In the same period, JTT stated that it had made 8,717 direct
marketing calls to users and sent 108,769,000 emails.
9. JTT sent the relevant emails to recipients who provided their email addresses
via one or more of five websites operated by JTT (referred to below as “the
relevant websites”). Four of those websites were concerned with job vacancies
(“the jobs websites”). The fifth (“the savings website”) was concerned with
money-saving offers and deals, e.g. on energy, education, finance and insurance.
10. The relevant websites are:
(i) uk.job-search.online – 262,513 registered users (‘Jobsearch’)
(ii) uk.jobinaclick.net – 171,675 users (‘JobinaClick’)
(iii) findajob.website – 13,008 users (‘FindaJob’)
(iv) uk.job4you.website – 8,985 users (‘Job4you’)
(v) savings.direct – 3,381 users (‘SavingsDirect’)
11. The versions of the consent statements and privacy policies in operation at the
relevant time are referred to in this decision as the ‘original’ versions/consent
statements/privacy policies etc. Amended versions were introduced from, at
the latest, December 2021. These are referred to as the ‘new’ versions/consent
statements/privacy policies etc.
12. In a letter to the Commissioner dated 20 September 2020, the director of JTT set
out how the websites operated. He explained that it was necessary to register in
order to use the services provided by the jobs website or to access exclusive
content on the jobs websites, but that it was possible to opt in to or opt out of
marketing communications by JTT and third parties:
“JTT operates also as a publisher, i.e. as the owner of several editorial
websites (mostly focussed on job-related subjects) on which internet users
can subscribe in order to access exclusive contents.
…
…When users land on the registration page, they are asked to fill out a web
form in order to use the services offered by each site. The above-mentioned
form, other than requiring users’ data functional to the subscription,
provides for two additional checkboxes.
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