Italy's Garante fined Wind Tre €16.7M for telemarketing and unseen contract activations

On June 5, 2026, Italy's data protection authority, the Garante, fined Wind Tre S.p.A. €16,700,000 for unlawful telemarketing and for activating contracts without the individuals' knowledge, citing GDPR Articles 5, 6, 12, 15, 21, 24, 25 and 32. The EDPB published the authority's summary on October 12, 2026. Investigators, acting on complaints, found people kept receiving promotional contacts after filing objections or without valid consent, and that systems failed to stop that processing or give prompt effect to requests.

The investigation also examined how Wind Tre's sales partners conclude contracts: activations happened without the individual's knowledge. Beside the fine, the Garante banned further processing of data acquired without consent and ordered effective objection handling and tighter controls over the sales network — underscoring that a controller using a complex sales network remains responsible for that processing.

€16.7 million administrative fine, a ban on processing data acquired without consent, and orders to fix objection handling and sales-network controls.

Promotional contacts continued after objections or without valid consent — GDPR Articles 6 and 21 failures the company's systems never caught.

Contracts were activated without individuals' knowledge by sales partners, with the controller retaining responsibility for the network's conduct.

Objection and access requests lacked prompt effect, and sales-network controls under GDPR Articles 24, 25 and 32 failed.

Outsourcing sales does not outsource accountability: a controller that lets partners and call centres activate contracts stays responsible for every consent they never checked.

The decision is final as of June 5, 2026: a €16.7M fine, a processing ban on data acquired without consent, and compliance orders on objection handling and sales-network oversight. The Garante's summary was published through the EDPB on October 12, 2026; no appeal outcome has been reported.