A company which targeted people registered on the Telephone Preference Service has been hit with a £75,000 fine for making unsolicited marketing calls to sell devices which would block the same type of calls the company itself was making.
Over a period of nearly two years, Chichester-based Cold Call Eliminations was the subject of 382 complaints to the Information Commissioner’s Office and the TPS from people who had already opted out of telemarketing calls.
Complaints were received from elderly and vulnerable customers who claimed aggressive cold callers pressed them to take subscriptions to a service that seemed to be the equivalent of the free TPS.
One complainant said the sales person implied they were calling from the statutory TPS, while another said money was taken from their account despite turning down the service and a bank account had to be cancelled to stop the contract.
Despite being warned by the ICO and subsequently monitored, giving the company a time period in which to improve, Cold Call Eliminations continued with the calls.
ICO head of enforcement Steve Eckersley: “This company clearly knew the law, but continued to break it by calling people on the TPS. It’s clear some of the people called by this company were very distressed by the calls and as some of the people receiving the calls were elderly or vulnerable this was an aggravating factor.
This monetary penalty has been issued to make sure that Cold Call Eliminations realise that it is unacceptable to operate in this way. It should also be a warning to other companies that we will act if companies are found to be breaking the law. It’s ironic that the products they were trying to sell should have blocked the very calls they were making.”
