Brighter Home Solutions Ltd, an Essex based double-glazing company, have been fined £50,000 by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) for making calls without screening against the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).
Between 4th January 2016 – 26th August 2016 the ICO received 187 complaints, 160 directly to the TPS, from consumers complaining about being called whilst on the TPS, but also about being misled by the call itself- in many cases Brighter Home Solutions presented a false number, making it look like they were calling from a local number.
Consumers also complained about the scripting – they were misled into believing that they had been contacted by the company previously and had consented to further calls, despite Brighten Home Solutions having brought this data from a 3rd party supplier.
Brighter purchased data from a third party, which they had been told was “opted in”, to make 450,000 marketing calls, but have admitted that they did not conduct any due diligence checks. Steven Eckersley, Head of Enforcement at the ICO said: