The ICO proposed to issue a fine of £90,000 but have had to take into account the company’s financial situation and reduce the penalty to £45,000.
Tameside Energy Services Limited describes itself as a company which offers a range of energy efficiency improvements. Between 26 May 2011 and 31 January 2013 the company was found to be responsible for over 1,000 complaints to the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and the ICO. In one case an 80 year old lady decided to complain after continuing to receive calls despite informing the company on 20 separate occasions that they must stop.
As well as failing to remove people from their contact lists, Tameside failed to carry out adequate checks to see whether the people they were calling had registered with the TPS. This is a legal requirement under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations governing electronic marketing.
Simon Entwisle, Director of Operations said:
“This is not the first and will not be the last monetary penalty issued by the ICO for unwanted marketing calls. These companies need to listen – bombarding the public with cold calls will not be tolerated. Were it not for the company’s poor financial position, this monetary penalty would have been £90,000.
“We are continuing our work with the industry, government and other regulators, including OFCOM, to co-ordinate our efforts to tackle this problem. We would like to see the law changed to make it simpler for us to punish companies responsible for repeated and continuous breaches of the law.”