In May 2018, we received a complaint against the online fashion retailer Cari’s Closet from an individual who had in the past placed an online order with the company. The complaint concerned the receipt of three unsolicited direct marketing emails. The same person had previously complained to the DPC in January 2018 about unsolicited emails from that company. On that occasion, the complainant said they had received over forty marketing emails in one month alone. The person had attempted, without success, to unsubscribe on a couple of occasions.

Cari’s Closet attributed the failure to properly unsubscribe the complainant from emails to a genuine mistake on its behalf.

As the DPC had issued a warning in April 2018 in relation to the earlier complaint, we decided to initiate prosecution proceedings against the company.

At Dublin Metropolitan District Court on 29 July 2019, Cari’s Closet pleaded guilty to one charge of sending an unsolicited direct marketing email to the complainant. Instead of a conviction and fine, the court applied section 1(1) of the Probation of Offenders Act on the basis that the company donate €600 to the Little Flower Penny Dinners charity.