The Information Commissioner’s Office continue to flex their increased powers by fining Avalon Direct Ltd £80,000 for making unlawful marketing calls concerning funeral plans to elderly and vulnerable people ‘who had made it explicitly clear they didn’t want to receive them.’
The ICO started an initial investigation in Plan My Funeral Avalon Ltd, based in Handforth Dean in Wilmslow, Cheshire, after a national newspaper reported suspected foul play in the company’s telephone practices.
Between 1st March and 20th November 2017, the firm were guilty of making 52,000 phone calls to households that had registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), making it illegal to contact the number without express consent.
In December, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) was granted new powers allowing them to fine bosses for spam calls. Currently, company directors and senior officers can be held personally liable for nuisance calls and forced to pay up to £500,000 for any breaches.
Prior to the increased powers allowing the ICO to fine individuals for director liability, it struggled to recover cash from firms that chose to liquidate rather than pay up. In the first half of 2018 the ICO only managed to claw back £9.7 million of the £17.8 million fines it has issued since 2010.
The majority of unpaid fines were for breaches of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). This is the law used to fine companies making bulk nuisance marketing texts and calls. Typical violations include failing to get the right permissions from people they call, or to check if numbers are opted-out via the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).
The UK Government initially promised to give the data protection regulator new powers two years ago and launched a consultation on the proposed amendments to the PECR in the first half of 2018.
The ICO have subsequently called for increased support for elderly relatives or neighbours to ensure any future spam calls are dealt with effectively and without causing excessive distress to the recipient.
Andy Curry, Enforcement Group Manager at the ICO, said:
“The funeral plan industry has been on our radar for a while and it is fair to say the sector as a whole has had some issues in terms of complying with the law. That’s not always reflected in volumes of complaints, however, because the very nature of this particular sector means the people being targeted for funeral plan sales may be older, potentially more vulnerable and may not be as technologically savvy or as active online.
“We would ask people to speak to their older relatives, neighbours or friends and make sure they are registered with the TPS. If they have still been getting nuisance calls, they can help report these calls to us as this helps us build up intelligence on companies and sectors where we need to take action.”
Are elderly and vulnerable people offered adequate protection from businesses that choose to flout GDPR and PECR regulations?
