Brit firm fined £200k for banging on about missold PPI in 11.4 million nuisance calls
- Reference: 1625214487
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/07/02/ppi_claims_biz_fined/
- Source link:
The investigation, prompted by complaints to the Information Comissioner's Office (ICO) and the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), found that Brazier Consulting Services Ltd (BCS) had made repeated nuisance calls to people about the misselling of payment protection insurance (PPI).
Following an investigation, the ICO said that 21,436,331 connected calls were made by BCS between 1 February 2019 and 31 July 2019.
[1]
Of these, the commissioner found that 11,489,873 were made for the purposes of marketing "claims management services" leading to 316 complaints to the ICO and TPS.
[2]
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"It's clear from the complaints we received that these calls caused real distress," said Natasha Longson, ICO Investigations Manager.
[4]UK watchdog fines biz £130k for 900,000+ direct marketing calls to folk who had opted out
[5]Papa don't breach: UK data watchdog fines that other pizza place £10,000 over unsolicited marketing blitz
[6]Conservative Party fined one-third of a luxury food hamper by ICO for nuisance email campaign
[7]UK data regulator fines American Express up to 0.021p per email after opted-out folk spammed 4.1 million times
"What's more, the firm continued to bombard people by phoning even when they'd been asked to stop."
One of those contacted by BCS said: "I was asked if I had made any PPI claims. I then asked for the caller to remove my number from the system. She then said that she was not allowed to remove numbers from the system, and that I would have to do it myself. I asked her if she was aware of the GDPR regulations and she said, 'Of course, but are you on the GDPR?'"
[8]Publishing its Monetary Penalty Notice [PDF], the ICO found that BCS was in breach of regulation 21A of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).
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As well as handing out the £200,000 fine, the ICO also issued an enforcement notice compelling the company to stop its illegal marketing activity. It also told them that failure to do is a criminal offence.
Last month, a home improvement firm based in East Sussex was collared by the ICO for making more than 900,000 unsolicited marketing calls to phone numbers registered with the TPS. Colour Coat of St Leonards-on-Sea was [10]fined £130,000 after the ICO received 50 complaints about unwanted marketing calls . ®
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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YN7jvZdzqVGDJ3mpwPtwFwAAANI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YN7jvZdzqVGDJ3mpwPtwFwAAANI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YN7jvZdzqVGDJ3mpwPtwFwAAANI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/24/ico_colour_coat_fine/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/16/papa_johns_ico_fine/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/03/conservative_party_fined_one_third/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/20/amex_fine_50m_spam/
[8] https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-taken/mpns/2620097/brazier-mpn-20210701.pdf
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YN7jvZdzqVGDJ3mpwPtwFwAAANI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/24/ico_colour_coat_fine/
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re:
This title got approved?
" the commissioner found that 11,489,873 were made for the purposes of marketing "claims management services" leading to 316 complaints to the ICO and TPS. "
So only 316 people bothered to complain, a simple form on the ICO website. Seems the ICO needs to do more to publicise complaining about telephone spam and make the public more aware they shouldnt expect to put up with these calls
Maybe people are just aware of the pitifully tiny fine likely to be imposed and the minimal likelihood of it being paid versus the company shutting up shop and starting again under a new name.
Would that be the form that asks for the number that called you (which is routinely spoofed) and the company making the call (who generally lie or refuse to tell you unless you play along long enough for them to think you might take the bait)?
Sure, we could all do that for every spam call we get and six months later (if we're lucky) the ICO will turn around and say there's not enough information to pursue. And then on the rare occasions they actually get around to doing their job, they issue an insultingly tiny fine like this.
If the ICO actually wants to stop this, they need to impose company-closing fines, hand out director bans and maybe send a few folk to jail. That *might* be a touch more effective than billing them fractions of a penny per call.
1.75 pence/call - fine not large enough
The fine should be against the firm owner personally so that s/he cannot avoid paying by just folding and creating a new firm tomorrow.
.
BTW: Why does El-Reg not name these reprobates ?
Re: 1.75 pence/call - fine not large enough
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10531983/officers
£200K
Just a business cost.
Re: £200K
Which they will NOT pay!
Re: £200K
Perhaps we need to start ringing them constantly. Have you been missold ICO fine protection insurance?
Bend over boys and take it like a pu$$y.
£200k for 11 million unsolicited/unwanted called equates to, drum roll please, £0.018 per call.
I can firmly see who's "side" the ICO is on.