Energy Company Fined
Article added: 08/07/2013
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued a Manchester company with a fine
of £45,000 for blighting the public with unwanted marketing calls.
The ICO proposed to issue a fine of £90,000, but after taking into account the company’s
financial situation it reduced the fine 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 properly implement a Do Not Call (DNC) list 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 at the ICO said,
“This is not the first and will not be the last fine 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 fine 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.”
The ICO has also issued the company with an enforcement notice, requiring Tameside to stop
making calls to those people who have registered their number with TPS, or have previously
notified Tameside that they do not wish to be contacted by them. Failure to comply with the
notice will lead to formal prosecution through the courts.
TPS Services can help you screen your data against the Telephone Preference Service
registers and help you manage and maintain your internal DNC lists to manage telephone
numbers of people asking to be removed from your lists.