The Data Protection Commissioner has issued its first warning to a restaurant for sending unsolicited mobile phone text messages to customers.
The commissioner's office received a number of complaints from members of the public who received unwanted marketing text messages from the Dublin city-centre restaurant, Brasserie Sixty6.
The restaurant said it had used mobile phone numbers from its reservations book to send the messages.
Customers had supplied contact numbers when making a reservation, but had not been aware that their numbers would be used for any other purpose.
Deputy data commissioner Garry Davis said the practice of sending this type of unsolicited message was illegal.
"We are in the process of prosecuting a number of companies in the mobile marketing sector - the sort of companies that generally sell mobile ringtones or run competitions - but this is the first time we've had to warn a restaurant about this practice."
On two occasions last week, the commissioner's office had to contact the restaurant and order it to stop sending the messages, which related to special offers on its menu. Failure to comply with warnings can lead to a prosecution resulting in a fine of €3,000 per message sent.
"We have issued warnings to the restaurant and have yet to decide whether we will be moving to a prosecution. We are not happy that the message was sent and do not want to see this being repeated at this restaurant or elsewhere," Mr Davis said.
Brasserie Sixty6 manager Sarah Hudson said the restaurant had not been aware that the practice was illegal until contacted by the commissioner's office and had since stopped sending the messages. However, she said the restaurant had not yet ruled out using text messaging as a form of promotion.
"It seems to be a grey area. We're still trying to find a way that we can send text messages," she said. "What we've started doing is handing out leaflets that people can fill in if they would like to be on our database and receive special offers."
