Brown Thomas Arnotts
The loyalty card turns every basket into a named record, merged with data bought from outside firms and sorted into groups by income and lifestyle. The discount is the payment for it, and the record is kept for as long as you keep shopping there.
Reported incidents
Admitted sending marketing emails people could not unsubscribe from
2026-09-08Affected Marketing emails
Brown Thomas Arnotts Limited, which runs the Brown Thomas and Arnotts department stores in Ireland, pleaded guilty on 7 September 2026 at Dublin Metropolitan District Court to five sample charges out of 21 brought by the Data Protection Commission. Three concerned marketing emails without a working unsubscribe and two concerned emails sent without valid consent. The DPC said a fault in third-party software stopped people unsubscribing, and some who had already withdrawn consent kept receiving marketing. The court applied the Probation of Offenders Act. The company paid 1,000 euros to charity and 1,000 euros towards the DPC's costs. The DPC had warned it in March 2022.
People affected typically ask Brown Thomas Arnotts to confirm whether their information was included, and which categories.
The verified route
DÆTRAX is a personal data accountability ledger: a dated record of which companies hold your personal data, what you asked them to do about it, and what they claimed in reply.