MPs urged to overhaul cold call laws

The data watchdog is piling pressure on MPs to change telemarketing laws after admitting it is powerless to act against most complaints because it cannot prove the calls are causing substantial harm or distress.
Under current legislation, the Information Commissioner’s Office can only target firms responsible for large numbers of calls, even though its own figures show nuisance calls are caused by a large number of companies making hundreds, rather than thousands, of annoying calls.
ICO director of operations Simon Entwisle is due before the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee inquiry into nuisance calls and texts – now in its second week – today. He will call on the Government to reduce the level of harm the regulator needs to prove for enforcement action. This will mean an investigation would only have to show annoyance or nuisance before enabling the ICO to issue more monetary penalties to companies behind the calls.
Entwisle said: “The simple fact is that the law only allows the ICO to prosecute the worst offenders, who are responsible for less than a quarter of the calls that frustrate so many of us.
“A change in the law would allow us to target more of the companies making these cold calls, and would have a noticeable effect for consumers. This could be a game-changing improvement to how we can stop unwanted calls.
“There’s a balance to be struck between a direct marketing industry that relies heavily on making calls, and consumers who feel they’re being bombarded. It’s for MPs to decide where the balance lies, but I think it’s fair to say that most people probably don’t think the law’s getting it right at the moment.”
Complaint figures show that 982 companies prompted complaints to the Telephone Preference Service in June after making cold calls; 82% of the companies received fewer than five complaints.
Only 21 of the companies received more than 25 complaints, but even those “worst offenders” were responsible for just a quarter of the total number of complaints where a company was named.
Not enough information was provided for a responsible company to be identified in 1,050 of the 4,786 complaints.
As well as working with MPs, the ICO is also working with companies who make marketing calls. Direct marketing guidance published this week outlines how this can be done in line with the law, particularly focusing on the importance of consent, while a direct marketing checklist has been produced to help companies understand how the law works. The ICO has also published guidance for companies receiving unwanted marketing.
Entwisle: “Regulatory enforcement isn’t and should never be the only solution to the problem. There a role for the marketing industry itself to play, and for the telecoms companies too. We’re working with both to help that to happen, and the guidance we’ve published today is prompted in part by that joint working. Important too is consumer education – too often we see that apparent nuisance calls have been prompted by consumers ticking a box to give their consent to receive the call.”

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