Cold-call bosses face £500,000 fine
COMPANY directors whose firms plague people with unsolicited nuisance calls will be held personally liable if their firm breaks the law, under new legislation that comes into force today.
The crackdown means bosses directly responsible can be fined up to £500,000 by data protection watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Previously, businesses – rather than individuals – were liable for fines of up to half a million pounds. However, some directors dodged penalties by declaring bankruptcy and then setting companies up again under a different name.
The new legislation will make it harder to avoid fines, and has been introduced to tackle the long-standing problem of nuisance calls in the UK.
Digital Minister Margot James said: “There is now no hiding place for the small minority of rogue directors who have previously tried to escape justice. We are determined to stamp this menace out.”
Andy Curry, head of the nuisance call enforcement team at the Information Commissioner’s Office, said: “We welcome this amendment to the law, which will increase the tools we have to protect the public. It will mean we can recover the fine more easily and also make it much harder for unscrupulous operators to set up in business again.”
Ofcom estimates British people received
3.9 billion nuisance phone calls and texts last year. A study by Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) last September found Scotland receives more nuisance calls than any other nation in the UK, with cities such as Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen the most affected.
The organisation also found nine in 10 people in Scotland had received a nuisance call to their landline, resulting in three-quarters being discouraged from answering their phone as a result; four in 10 felt intimidated by nuisance calls; and most nuisance calls were silent and consisted of marketing calls about Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) compensation and energy efficiency schemes.
Derek Mitchell, chief executive of CAS, welcomed welcomed today’s announcement, saying: “Nuisance calls cause inconvenience and distress, and people should not have to put up with them, yet we know Scots get more of these calls than other parts of the UK.
“We have campaigned to raise awareness of this issue and have called for action to protect consumers, so we are pleased to see this new measure. Consumers deserve protection against nuisance calls and it is right that those who are responsible for such calls have no place to hide. We would also remind people there are ways to stop unwanted calls.”
The ICO issued fines totalling £1.9 million to 23 companies for nuisance marketing in 2016/17.
Earlier this year, an investigation was launched into Scottish double glazing firm CR Smith by the ICO after consumers complained it was making unsolicited marketing calls.
The data watchdog monitored activities of the Dunfermline-based firm, which was once simultaneously shirt sponsor to Celtic and Rangers, and told the company it could face a heavy fine if there was no improvement.
An ICO spokesman said: “Following our three-month review process there has been sufficient reduction in complaints to remove the company from our monitoring lists.
“This reduction can be evidenced by the fact no complaints were received either by the TPS nor the ICO to date in 2018.”