[charleslmunger]

The Honda case actually seems pretty reasonable to fine - Honda had an issue where consent from dealer events and other sources wasn't correctly recorded. So they have a large list of emails, where consent falls into three categories:

* Person did not consent, they left the form blank

* Person consented, but it was not recorded

* Person actively denied consent ( wrote "no")

Honda then sent commercial email to this set of users, to "confirm" their preferences. In my view, that's not reasonable - if I leave a "would you like to receive email" item in a form blank, that is not permission to send me email.

[mindslight]

Also 13k/350k is 4 pence per email, which is tiny! Well below what they'd have had to pay if pay-to-be-received had been workable.

I'm not a fan of government or of fines, but this amount isn't even a slap on the wrist.