[AndrewR]

As part of the application process for a SEG tariff, I had to answer a question about opting in to receive marketing communications. I was asked if I wanted to opt-in to receiving marketing communications by SMS, Email or Telephone. As someone who hates marketing texts, spam and junk mail I didn't opt in to any of them, which is where the problem is:



The form won't let you carry on to the next question without "opting in" to receive at least one type of marketing communication!

That's not how consent works, E.on.

The Office of thew Information Commissioner has a nice explanation of how the law works in relation to marketing consent on their website. The relevant part says:

"How does consent apply to direct marketing?If you want to ask people to give you consent for direct marketing, you must make sure it is:

• freely given: People must have genuine choice and control over whether or not to consent to your direct marketing. In many cases it is unlikely you can make consent for direct marketing a condition of your service. They must be able to refuse consent without detriment (there’s usually some benefit of consenting to direct marketing, such as access to special offers, but it is important to avoid unduly incentivising people to consent). They must also be able to withdraw their consent at any time (see What do we do if someone withdraws their consent?)"
  

So by forcing me to consent, E.on is breaking article 6 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament, better known as the GDPR.

This ought to be pretty easy to fix though, all E.on needs to do is make that an optional question and give everyone they have forced to opt in an opportunity to opt out.

[meldrewreborn]

@AndrewR

A box that says none of the above will fix it. Probably this is an error on the part of the designers rather than Eon Next policy. Easily correctable but absolutely unacceptable.

[DebF_EONNext]

Morning @AndrewR & @meldrewreborn I hope you're both having a lovely morning?

I've fed this back to Graeme our FiT/SEG guru, I think as you said meldrewreborn it's an admin error however I will let you know the outcome 😊

[AndrewR]

Thanks, both. As you say, this does look like an honest mistake rather than a deliberate policy,

There cant be a lot of value in marketing E.on's services to someone who gets to that question as you'd only really be there if you already have E.on as your supplier, already have a solar PV set up and are applying to get an E.on SEG tariff, meaning there's precious little left for their marketing people to try to sell you!

[DebF_EONNext]

Evening 👋 This has been sent to the correct team to get updated however it might take a while for this update - in the meantime if anyone would like to complete their application but is still facing this issue, you can select an option to complete the form then please get in-touch with an energy specialist and they will be able to note up your account with your marketing preferences and edit any changes that may have been made.

It is just an admin error and hopefully it won't take long to get fixed 😊 Thank you for flagging this up @AndrewR