Newcastle Based Sole Trader Fined £50,000 After Making Over 190,000 Unlawful Marketing Calls

The ICO have announced that they have taken enforcement action against Newcastle based sole trader Darian Bishop (trading as ECO4U) after it was found that they had made 194,110 unsolicited marketing calls to individuals who were registered with the Telephone Preference Service. This was picked up by the ICO in October 2023 after only 21 complaints to them and the TPS.

The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is a free official “do not call” register that allows both individuals and businesses to automatically opt-out of unsolicited marketing communications and live sales. In line with Regulation 21 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Act (PECR), companies must not make unsolicited marketing calls to an individual who has a number registered with the TPS. If they want to, they must obtain valid consent from the individual to do so.

Bishop’s unlawful calls were regarding grants for new solar panels and boilers, with the inference being that he was connected to a government scheme. It was found that in these calls, Bishop also failed to provide the necessary information to let individuals know who they were being called by.

While Bishop told the ICO that he had received a valid form of consent from each individual contacted, in the form of an application form on Facebook, every individual from a sample of the complaints confirmed that they had not done this.

These discussions with the individuals that complained also highlighted the nature of the calls, with the general consensus being that the calls felt dishonest, like an invasion of privacy and in some cases, threatening. One complaint stated that the call started by stating that they were calling from a government company and once the data subject said they wouldn’t do anything over the phone, they asked them to confirm their address so they could send someone the next day. As you would expect, the data subject felt that this was “very threatening”.

The investigation also found that Bishop was completely aware of the regulations surrounding marketing calls, and was even investigated back in 2015 for making persistent sales calls and attempting to mislead people into believing that under the now defunct Green Deal scheme, they would receive a free boiler.

Following the investigation, the ICO hit Bishop with a £50,000 financial penalty, signifying the serious nature of the unlawful activities he had undertaken.

What can we learn from this?

Enforcement action from the ICO due to improper marketing activities isn’t uncommon, though there are a few elements to this specific case that are important to keep in mind:

What can businesses take from this?

Abide by guidelines and regulations: If your marketing activities are complaint, you won’t have any issues. The ICO in particular has a huge bank of publicly available resources and guidance that can help you identify potential risks and issues with your marketing activities. Consulting industry experts (such as PRIVACY HELPER) is also a great way to get effective guidance for these activities.

The ICO doesn’t just go after larger companies: It’s easy to assume that the ICO only goes after larger companies, as these cases are the ones that we hear about the most. Incidents like this one prove that this isn’t the case, and even smaller companies, such as sole traders, are at risk of investigation if their activities aren’t compliant.

It only takes a few complaints to get investigated: Out of 194,110 unsolicited calls, only 21 complaints were needed for an investigation to take place. While the chance of one single person complaining is low, when working with large datasets, you only need a few people to complain for the ICO to take notice.

Regularly check the TPS: One of the factors that went into deciding on such as severe penalty was the fact that many of the people contacted were registered with the TPS. If you’re a company looking to complete SMS or phone call marketing, we recommend checking the TPS frequently.

The letter of the law isn’t the only thing that’s considered: In addition to factors such as the volume of calls made, the nature of the marketing activity and the fact that people registered with the TPS were contacted, other non-regulatory factors were considered when determining the penalty. The fact that these calls often came across as dishonest and threatening absolutely affected the outcome of the investigation. If someone clearly isn’t interested in your services, you shouldn’t keep pushing them. Nobody should feel threatened in their own home simply because they picked up the phone.

What can individuals take from this?

Register with the TPS: Registering your mobile phone and landline with the TPS is a quick and easy step that will reduce the number of marketing calls you get. Most companies correctly check the TPS before calling, and as this case shows, those who don’t are at risk of getting in serious trouble.

Remember your right to complain: If you’re getting calls that you believe are unlawful, you have the right to complain to the relevant regulatory bodies. It only takes a few complaints for the ICO to take notice. You can make a complaint in the following ways:

• To the ICO: You can make a complaint to the ICO either through their website or over the phone.
• To the TPS: The TPS website has a free complaint handling service that you can use once you’ve been registered for 28 days or more.
• To the Mobile UK’s Spam Reporting Service: If you receive an unwanted marketing text, you can make a report simply by forwarding the message to 7726.

Take a look at our Marketing Legislation page to learn more about making sure your marketing activities are compliant.