The now Publicis-owned company’s settlement with the DOJ comes after a decade of solicitations
For anyone in the ad industry not yet awake to the importance of data privacy issues, a Department of Justice case has provided a clear wakeup call. Publicis Groupe-owned Epsilon Data Management agreed to a $150 million settlement with the Department of Justice, resolving criminal charges related to the selling of data to perpetrators of elder fraud schemes—stemming from prior to Publicis’ acquisition of the company.
Epsilon admitted that its DTC unit sold the information of 30 million consumers to the perpetrators of such elder fraud schemes, with $127 million of the settlement total going to compensate victims of elder fraud schemes which utilized information provided by Epsilon. The company entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Consumer Protection Branch of the Justice Department’s Civil Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado in relation to charges for one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
“Companies who sell consumer information have a responsibility to avoid knowingly selling it to those who will use the data to defraud or swindle consumers,” U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn for the District of Colorado said in a statement published by the Department of Justice. “I hope other data companies will take note of this outcome and ensure that they don’t likewise help fraudsters.”
Epsilon deferred to Publicis Groupe for comment.
“The conduct at issue in the agreement relates to activities that last occurred in 2017, long before Publicis acquired Epsilon,” a Publicis spokesperson said in a statement. “Alliance Data Systems, the former owner of Epsilon, has agreed to indemnify Publicis for all costs related to the DOJ investigation and resolution, including the monetary payment.”
According to the Department of Justice statement, Epsilon admitted that employees in the company’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) unit, referred to as employees A-D in court documents, knowingly sold modeled lists of consumers to clients which were engaged in fraud from July 2008 through July 2017. Publicis Groupe acquired Epsilon for an estimated $4.4 billion in 2019.
Epsilon acknowledged…
