ICO Fine Company for making 2.5 million nuisance calls – A home improvements company that made 2.5 million recorded phone calls has been fined £50,000 by the Information Commissioner.
The unwanted calls were made by Nevis Home Improvements Ltd, based in Glasgow.
People who picked up the phone heard a recorded message promoting the firm’s energy saving services at their contact centre.
An ICO investigation, prompted by 175 complaints, traced the calls to Nevis Home Improvements Ltd even though the phone messages did not identify who was making the call.
Ken Macdonald, Assistant Information Commissioner for Scotland, said:
“More and more of our investigations involve companies that make unwanted recorded marketing calls. Six of our last eight fines have been for calls playing a recorded message. It’s time they got our message – if you don’t follow the rules, we will track you down and take action.”
Calls that play a recorded message must only be made to people who have given the organisation their permission to receive this type of call. Nevis Home Improvements Ltd did not have that consent. Messages must also identify who made the call.
The ICO found that the company instigated 2,530,549 automated marketing calls between May and August 2015. Some 1,538,682 of them were connected.
The kind of calls Nevis Home Improvements Ltd was making – recorded and about energy services – generated the most complaints to the ICO in March this year. Combined with automated calls about PPI, they made up 66% of recorded complaints to the ICO.
Nevis Home Improvements Ltd is the 19th company that the ICO has fined since the law changed to make it easier to crack down on nuisance callers.
Since the change in April last year, the ICO has issued fines totalling £2,035,000 compared with just £360,000 during the previous 12 months.
The ICO is the regulatory body in Scotland for data protection issues and Ken Macdonald leads its offices in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Scotland also has its own Information Commissioner to regulate the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act that covers Scottish public authorities.
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