A major Telephone Preference Service screening cock-up has triggered a fresh warning from the Information Commissioner’s Office over non-compliance after the regulator dished out yet another fine to a home improvement company.
Although the company involved, Southampton-based Home Logic, did carry out regular screening against TPS through an electronic dialler system, an ICO investigation found that the system was unavailable for 90 days due to technical issues.
However, Home Logic continued to make unsolicited marketing calls without any alternative screening against the TPS register.
Between April 1 2015 and July 31 2016, it received 133 complaints from members of the public about nuisance calls made to their TPS-registered numbers; a further three complaints were made by callers passing themselves off as the firm.
Slapping the company with a £50,000 fine, ICO head of enforcement Steve Eckersley said: “Organisations have no excuse – they know that calling people on the TPS register is against the law and that we will come down hard on them if they don’t respect the public’s right to privacy.
”We continue to see companies suffering the financial and reputational consequences of being caught making nuisance calls, which could have been prevented if they had invested in a TPS licence and made proper use of it. It is baffling that some firms continue to take this business risk.”
The ICO insists that firms can subscribe to the TPS for 12 months for a cost of £2,640, or less for limited geographical areas or for time-specific periods.
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