Clarity Leads, a lead generation company has today been banned from texting unsolicited messages to consumers offering pensions liberation.

The issue was highlighted by a complainant after a text message was sent out which read “TRAPPED or FROZEN Pension? Release large cash sum NOW! Achieve high growth yield. Reply PENSION for info or STOP to opt out”.

The ASA stated that the ad had breached the Committee of Advertising (CAP) Code (Edition 12) rules 10.3 which states marketers must do everything reasonable to ensure that, if asked in writing, consumers or the ASA (with consent of the consumer concerned) are given available information on the nature of a consumer’s personal information and from where it has been obtained.

The company also broke rules 10.4.2 and 10.13.3 dealing with unsolicited marketing communications and data marketing.

In delivering its final decision, ASA stated that “the ad must not appear again in its current form” and told the company “to hold the explicit consent of consumers before sending text messages in future” and that “future text messages should include details of their identity”.

Clarity Leads in its response mentioned that it did not send text messages but had previously acted as a broker for SMS leads.

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