UK’s First Tier Tribunal overturns ICO’s Notice issued against Experian

UK’s First Tier Tribunal overturns ICO’s Notice issued against Experian

The UK’s First Tier Tribunal has substantially overturned the Enforcement Notice issued by the Information Commissioner's Office (”ICO”) in 2020 to Experian, following an appeal.

Experian is a multinational company offering data analytics and consumer credit reporting services. Experian provides marketing services using predictive analysis on the demographic, social, economic and behavioural characteristics of consumers. The ICO’s Enforcement Notice related to Experian’s processing of personal data for offline marketing services. Offline marketing refers to all methods of marketing that are not conducted online, such as postal advertising (i.e., bulk mail) and other offline marketing channels (for example, TV broadcasting, radio and billboard advertising). The ICO ruled that Experian had contravened the data protection principles and the rights of data subjects as set out in the General Data Projection Regulation (GDPR).

The First Tier Tribunal rejected the ICO’s view that Experian’s privacy notice was not transparent, that using credit reference data for direct marketing purposes was unfair, or that Experian did not properly assess its lawful basis. Accordingly, the Tribunal has replaced the eight requirements from the ICO’s Enforcement Notice with a new Enforcement Notice. The requirements of the new notice require Experian to be more transparent in how it uses the data of a narrow group of individuals sourced from certain public records. Experian can either notify these individuals of its data practices, or delete their information from its database.

David Parker, Director at Frontier, submitted an expert report on behalf of Experian.

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