In February 2021, the DPC received one complaint from an individual concerning unsolicited marketing electronic mail they had received from the telecommunications company Three Ireland (Hutchison) Limited. The complainant opted out of receiving marketing emails in mid-February 2021.

In response to the DPC’s investigation, Three Ireland (Hutchison) Limited explained that when it attempted to execute the opt-out request an issue arose from a scenario of two records getting sent simultaneously and losing sequence, resulting in its system not being updated correctly. As a result, three further marketing emails were sent to the complainant in the following weeks. Three Ireland (Hutchison) Limited stated that it remedied the matter by implementing a script to resolve differences between permissions data. It also set up an email alert to monitor the script and raise an alert should the script stop working.

The DPC had previously prosecuted Three Ireland (Hutchison) Limited in 2020 and 2012 for breaching Regulation 13 of the ePrivacy Regulations in relation to previous complaints. Accordingly, the DPC decided to proceed to another prosecution arising from this complaint case.

At Dublin Metropolitan District Court on 6 September 2021, Three Ireland (Hutchison) Limited pleaded guilty to two charges under Regulation 13(1) of the ePrivacy Regulations. The District Court applied the Probation of Offenders Act 1907, on the basis of a charitable donation of €3,000 to Little Flower Penny Dinners. Three Ireland (Hutchison) Limited agreed to discharge the DPC’s legal costs.