Italian Data Protection Authority fines Altroconsumo and TIM

The Italian data‑protection regulator, the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, imposed two separate penalties for privacy violations. Altroconsumo Edizioni S.r.l., the publishing arm of Italy’s consumer association, was fined €280,000 after the authority found that the company continued to send marketing emails to users who had never confirmed their registration, effectively bypassing a double‑opt‑in requirement under the GDPR and Italy’s privacy code.

In a separate case, the Garante fined Telecom Italia (TIM) €9.5 million for a telemarketing scheme that used spoofed numbers and unregistered call‑center operators to collect personal data and contact consumers who were on the public opposition register. The regulator concluded that TIM failed to supervise its partners and did not ensure adequate data‑protection safeguards throughout the telemarketing chain.