ASDA Invests in Seamless Payment Experience Amidst Surging Online Grocery Shopping

Worldline (Euronext: WLN), a global leader in payment services, has announced the extension of its 16-year partnership with ASDA, the UK’s third-largest supermarket group, to provide a comprehensive omnichannel payment solution for an initial period of five years, catering to the growing demands of omnichannel retail experiences amidst a significant surge in online food and grocery shopping in the UK.

With the UK’s online food and grocery shopping projected to rise from £25.3 billion in 2022 to £29.3 billion in 2025 (Statista), ASDA is strategically investing in enhancing the user experience for its 18 million weekly customers by consolidating the entire payment process chain under Worldline as a single provider. This partnership will see ASDA integrating Worldline’s omnichannel payment solution, including terminals, acquiring services, and smart routing through Worldline Payment Orchestration, to enhance customer experience and operational efficiency for approximately 800,000 weekly deliveries.

By leveraging Worldline’s solution, ASDA aims to gain valuable insights into its customers, empowering them to tailor their offerings to better meet evolving needs and significantly increase transactions through Worldline’s payment gateway, with the majority expected to occur in-store, complemented by a substantial number of online purchases.

Worldline’s omnichannel solution is designed to ensure stable acceptance and high-quality standards both in-store and online, covering end-to-end capabilities from gateway to hardware, enabling ASDA to offer a seamless user experience across all channels. Additionally, the introduction of Worldline’s Smart Routing empowers ASDA to gain control over their card acquiring flows, optimizing costs by selecting the most suitable acquirer for each transaction while enhancing resilience and customer experience.

Lee Jones, Chief Executive Officer of Worldline Merchant Services UK, expressed excitement about extending the partnership with ASDA, emphasizing Worldline’s commitment to meeting the needs of large grocery retailers and delivering market-leading payment solutions.

Richard Sykes, Treasurer & Head of Pensions at ASDA, highlighted the operational efficiencies and enhanced customer experiences expected through the partnership with Worldline, enabling ASDA to adapt to changing customer shopping habits and remain relevant in the market.

Worldline endeavours to empower businesses worldwide to accelerate their growth journey by providing advanced payments technology, local expertise, and some solutions tailored to varying markets and industries, generating €4.6 billion in revenue in 2023.

ASDA, a household name in the UK and headquartered in Leeds, serves over 18 million customers every week in its stores and online, with a long-standing commitment to providing low prices and exceptional customer service.

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Post-Brexit: data protection
Card processor sends sensitive data to wrong address
24 August 2022

Worldline SA subsidiary Payone GmbH has been accused of breaching data protection rules after it sent sensitive employee payroll information to the wrong address by accident. The Worldline Group holdS a 60% stake in the Frankfurt based company who have a small UK market presence.

In June 2021, one of Payone GmbH’s ex UK employees (the data subject) received a “potential data breach notification” from the firm advising him that his salary, National Insurance data, nationality (Special Category Data) was amongst various bits of information sent to an incorrect home address.

This included personal information such as the former employees name, age and address.  It also included details such as the date of birth and the amount of annual work bonus he received in his bank account amongst other identifiable data.

Payone GmbH confirmed that this document was sent out in error following an employee making a mistake when re-entering data processed by their third-party payroll provider.  The error arose when the employee was fulfilling an Article 15 GDPR request. The error was spotted by the data subject when he noticed in an email version of the document that the postal address was incorrect. An attempt to notify Payone GmbH of the error went in vain as the document was already irretrievably despatched.

The data subject was alarmed with the incident which exposed him to the possibility of fraudulent activity, amidst reasonable fears his data could end up on the dark web and used by criminals.  Habitually resident in the UK he complained to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in June 2021. He similarly raised the concern in Germany via The Hessian Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (HBDI).

The ICO reprimanded Payone GmbH for the error in their final decision letter.
Similarly, the HBDI cited a violation of Article 5(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) relating to integrity and confidentiality.

The ICO stated in their July 2021 findings that Payone GmbH, “should take steps to ensure that all personal data records are accurate and up to date. Holding inaccurate information, such as addresses, does increase the risk of personal data breaches and poses risks to the security of information”.

The HBDI confirmed in their October 2021 findings that Payone GmbH had taken remedial action. They concluded that a monetary fine would not be imposed on Payone GmbH as they had taken technical and organisational steps in response to the data breach. Data subjects could now request their data in an autonomous portal.

The GDPR, which came into effect in 2018, gave the Information Commissioner’s Office greater powers to tackle data breaches. The new ‘UK GDPR’ charts its own course after Brexit whilst seeking to maintain EU GDPR adequacy.  In extreme scenarios, organisations face penalties of up to £20m or 4 per cent of their global worldwide turnover, whichever is more.

In the years prior to GDPR, the ICO fines were capped at £500,000.

The data subject said: “I am just glad I spotted it; they were going to resend the document again to another wrong address. Prior to Brexit the process would have been commenced via the ICO who in turn would liaise with the HBDI on the data subjects’ behalf; but I found myself communicating with both authorities separately which was an additional step but in the end was surprisingly
effective. Unfortunately, Payone GmbH again sent my incorrect address to the
Workers Pension Trust in January 2022, and documents yet again went to the wrong address. In my opinion they have not learned from the first time and my complaint is sitting with the ICO yet again”.

The former employee is pursuing a remedy under Article 82 UK GDPR via
the Court’s of England & Wales.

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