Home improvement company receives £50,000 fine for hundreds of unlawful calls
3 Apr 2014 03:26 PM
The Information
Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has served home improvement company, Amber
Windows, with a £50,000 fine after an investigation discovered
they had made unsolicited marketing calls to people who had registered with the
Telephone Preference Service (TPS)
The Privacy and Electronic
Communications Regulations (PECR), which govern telephone marketing, prohibit
making unsolicited telephone calls to people who have put their number on the
TPS register. The ICO had received 524 complaints from people on the register
between May 2011 and April 2013.
The ICO has also issued an Enforcement Notice against Amber
Windows ordering them not to call subscribers who have previously told them not
to ring or subscribers who have not consented to them calling and have
registered the number with the TPS for at least the required 28
days
ICO Director of Operations,
Simon Entwisle said:
“This fine shows companies
running marketing campaigns cannot plague the lives of people who have
expressly asked not to receive unsolicited calls. We wrote repeatedly to Amber
Windows asking them to stop, they ignored us. Now they are facing a
£50,000 penalty and a legally enforceable order to cease their unlawful
practices.
“We will continue to
target these companies that bombard households across the UK with nuisance
calls and texts. We are also currently speaking with the government to get the
legal bar lowered, allowing us to take action at a much earlier
stage.”
Anyone can register with
the Telephone Preference Service by going to
their website or calling 0845 070 0707. Anyone receiving unsolicited
telephone call who has registered should report it to the ICO using our online
survey. Over 200,000 responses have been sent in since the survey was setup
early last year and the information provided is being used to help identify
those companies responsible.
The ICO has also
published detailed guidance for direct marketers explaining their legal
requirements under the Data Protection Act and Privacy and Electronic
Communications Regulations. The guidance covers the circumstances in which
organisations are able to carry out marketing over the phone, by text, by
email, by post or by fax.
Notes to
Editors
1. Amber Windows is registered
at Companies House as Amber UPVC Fabrications Ltd (Companies House No:
02815557)
2. The Information
Commissioner’s Office upholds information rights in the public interest,
promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for
individuals.
3. The ICO has specific
responsibilities set out in the Data Protection Act 1998, the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and Privacy
and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003.
4. The ICO is on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and produces a
monthly e-newsletter.
5. Anyone who processes personal
information must comply with eight principles of the Data Protection
Act, which make sure that personal information is:
- Fairly and lawfully
processed
- Processed for limited
purposes
- Adequate, relevant and not
excessive
- Accurate and up to
date
- Not kept for longer than is
necessary
- Processed in line with your
rights
- Secure
- Not transferred to other
countries without adequate protection
6. Civil Monetary Penalties
(CMPs) are subject to a right of appeal to the (First-tier Tribunal) General
Regulatory Chamber against the imposition of the monetary penalty and/or the
amount of the penalty specified in the monetary penalty
notice.
7. Any monetary penalty is
paid into the Treasury’s Consolidated Fund and is not kept by the
Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
8. If you need more information,
please contact the ICO press office on 0303 123 9070.