Wind Tre SpA

What happened

Italy's Garante fined Wind Tre €16.7 million for extensive unlawful telemarketing and data processing violations. The telecommunications company engaged in aggressive promotional campaigns, making millions of unsolicited calls and SMS messages to individuals without valid consent. The investigation found that Wind Tre activated unsolicited premium services on customer lines without authorization, used a non-compliant consent mechanism in its apps that did not allow users to freely give or withhold consent for different purposes, and failed to implement adequate measures to honor data subjects' objections to marketing. The company's call center network operated with insufficient oversight regarding consent verification.

Articles violated

Lessons learned

Consent must be specific and granular — users must be able to consent to or refuse each processing purpose independently. Activating services without customer authorization is a serious violation. Mobile operators must implement robust consent management systems that flow through to all call centers and marketing channels. Periodic auditing of marketing practices and consent records is essential for telecom companies with complex distribution networks.