The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has warned RBS about sending marketing emails to customers who have unsubscribed from the service.
A NatWest customer complained to the ASA after receiving two emails in May promoting the CashbackPlus scheme, querying the bank’s permission to pass on her details to a third party.
RBS, which owns NatWest, said that the terms and conditions for this customer’s account allowed the bank to share her information with other members of the RBS Group or third parties providing services to the organisation.
However, the customer had opted out of receiving marketing information and an error on the bank’s systems meant that she was not unsubscribed from its marketing database.
RBS admitted that it had received four complaints and had identified 341 customers out of the 500,000 who had unsubscribed but received CashbackPlus emails between February and May 2012. This error has now been fixed.
The Press Association reported that the ASA said the combination of errors was unfortunate, adding it was concerned RBS had not complied with advertising regulations. “We told RBS to ensure they did not send marketing communications to customers who had asked not to receive them, and to ensure that they suppressed customers’ personal information from marketing databases when asked.”
Posted by
The Direct Marketing Association (UK) Ltd
Smarayda Christoforou
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