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Enforcement action

39 in total

Quick Tax Claims Limited

15 October 2024, Enforcement notices

An ICO investigation revealed that Quick Tax Claims Limited had sent 7,863,547 unlawful text messages over the course of a month, resulting in 66,793 complaints – 93% of these stating there was no ‘opt out’ option. During the investigation, the ICO found that the company had purchased personal information from third-party suppliers that did not obtain valid consent. This led to the ICO issuing Quick Tax Claims Limited with a £120,000 fine.

National Debt Advice Limited

14 October 2024, Enforcement notices, Finance insurance and credit

National Debt Advice sent 129,902 unsolicited direct marketing text messages to individuals in breach of regulation 22 of PECR resulting in over 4,000 complaints to the 7726 spam reporting service. The company was fined £30,000 and issued with an enforcement notice.

WerepairUK Ltd

10 October 2024, Enforcement notices, Marketing

WerepairUK Ltd made 42,688 marketing calls to individuals in breach of regulation 21 of PECR. The company has been fined £80,000 and issued with an enforcement notice.

Service Box Group Limited

10 October 2024, Enforcement notices

Service Box Group Limited made 5,361 marketing calls to individuals in breach of regulation 21 of PECR. The company has been fined £40,000 and issued with an enforcement notice.

Coastal Windows & Conservatories (UK) Limited

15 August 2024, Enforcement notices, Retail and manufacture

Coastal Windows & Conservatories Limited made over 18,000 unsolicited marketing calls between 1 January and 1 June 2023 to numbers registered with the TPS. The ICO and TPS received numerous complaints from people variously saying they had not consented to receiving such calls or received repeated calls despite requests to stop.

Outsource Strategies Ltd

24 April 2024, Enforcement notices, Marketing

Outsource Strategies Ltd made 1,346,503 unwanted marketing calls between 11 February 2021 and 22 March 2022 to numbers registered with the TPS. The ICO received 74 complaints from people variously saying they received repeated calls despite requests to stop and that the callers were aggressive.

Dr Telemarketing

23 April 2024, Enforcement notices

Between 11 February 2021 to 24 January 2022, there were 80,240 connected calls unsolicited direct marketing calls being made to subscribers who were registered with the TPS and who had not notified DRT that they were willing to receive such calls, and two complaints being submitted as a result. Calls were about the Irish Lottery. DRT stopped engaging with the Commissioner part way through the investigation and failed to provide a satisfactory explanation for the Lotto Express calls involved in the contravention.

Home Office

21 March 2024, Enforcement notices, Central government

An enforcement notice and a warning have been issued to the Home Office for failing to assess the privacy risks posed by the electronic monitoring of people arriving in the UK by unauthorised means. The ICO has been in discussion with the Home Office regarding its pilot to place ankle tags on, and track the GPS location of, up to 600 migrants who arrived in the UK and were on immigration bail. Although the pilot ended in December 2023, the Home Office has retained the GPS location data collected by the tags and will continue to be able to access and use that data including sharing it with other third-party organisations. The enforcement notice orders the Home Office to update its internal policies, access guidance and privacy information in relation to the data retained from the pilot. The warning issued also states that any future processing on the same basis will be in breach of data protection law and will attract enforcement action.

Pinnacle Life Limited

07 March 2024, Enforcement notices, Finance insurance and credit

Between 5 May 2021 to 5 May 2022, there were 47,998 connected calls unsolicited direct marketing calls being made to subscribers who were registered with the TPS and who had not notified Pinnacle Life Limited that they were willing to receive such calls, and four complaints being submitted as a result.

Penny Appeal

01 March 2024, Enforcement notices

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued an Enforcement Notice to Penny Appeal, for sending 461,650 spam text messages over a ten day period. These messages were sent to a database of individuals who had never agreed to receive marketing communication from Penny Appeal.

Serco Leisure Operating Limited and relevant associated Trusts

23 February 2024, Enforcement notices, Transport and leisure

Serco Leisure, Serco Jersey and seven associated community leisure trusts have been issued enforcement notices ordering them to stop using facial recognition technology and fingerprint scanning to monitor employee attendance. The ICO's investigation found that Serco and the trusts have been unlawfully processing the biometric data of more than 2,000 employees at 38 leisure facilities for the purpose of monitoring attendance.

L.A.D.H Limited

19 January 2024, Enforcement notices, Finance insurance and credit

L.A.D.H Limited sent 31,329 direct market text messages to individuals in breach of regulation 22 and 23 of PECR. The company was fined £50,000 and issued with an enforcement notice.

Crown Prosecution Service

18 January 2024, Enforcement notices, Criminal justice

An Enforcement Notice has been issued to the Crown Prosecution Service in relation to a contravention of the sixth data protection principle in section 40 DPA 2018. The contravention was identified…

Poxell Ltd

16 January 2024, Enforcement notices

Poxell first came to the attention of the Commissioner in April 2022 as part of an investigation formed to assess and analyse complaint trends in relation to the energy and home improvements sector. The investigation established that between 31 March 2022 and 20 July 2022, Poxell made 2,647,805 unsolicited direct marketing calls in breach of regulations 21 and 24 of PECR. The above resulted in 413 complaints to the ICO and TPS reporting tools. Individuals stated calls were about energy products, specifically driveway repairs, windows, doors and insulation. Several complainants reported that they had not consented to receive calls which were persistent in nature, one individual stated they had received over 40 calls, and they thought calls may be a scam.

Skean Homes Ltd

16 January 2024, Enforcement notices

Skean first came to the attention of the Commissioner in 2022 as part of an operation formed to assess and analyse complaint trends in relation to the energy and home improvement sector. The Commissioner identified a number of complaints against "Eco Hub", "Driveway Solutions" and "Eco Driveways", in which complainants stated that the calls were promoting energy grants for resin driveways. The investigation established that between 2 March 2022 and 31 May 2022, Skean instigated 614,342 unsolicited direct marketing calls in breach of regulations 21 and 24 of PECR. The above resulted in 31 complaints to the ICO and TPS reporting tools.

Daniel George Bentley and Taipan Trading Ltd

05 December 2023, Enforcement notices, Marketing

Daniel George Bentley is a sole trader and director of Taipan Trading Ltd. Between 1 May 2022 and 31 July 2023 he and his company sent over 2.5 million unsolicited direct marketing text messages to individuals in breach of regulations 22 and 23 of PECR.

Argentum Data Solutions Ltd

26 October 2023, Enforcement notices, General business

Between 1 January 2021 and 31 January 2022 there were a total of 2,330,423 SMS sent without consent. 24,309 were sent by ADS directly and it allowed its lines to be used by third parties to send the remaining 2,306,114. These messages were sent in breach of regulation 22 of PECR. ADS came to our attention following a review of complaints received by the 7726 spam reporting tool.

Digivo Media Limited

03 October 2023, Enforcement notices, Finance insurance and credit

Between 24 March 2021 and 7 September 2021 there were 415,041 texts delivered without valid consent – breach of Regulation 22 of PECR. Digivo came to the ICO’s attention following a review of debt management complaints received via the SPAM reporting tool.

MCP Online Ltd

28 September 2023, Enforcement notices, Finance insurance and credit

Between 1 January 2022 and 28 September 2022 there were 20,939 calls made to CTPS or TPS registered numbers – breach of Reg 21 and 24 of PECR. MCP came to the ICO’s attention following a review of complaints made to the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) in November 2021 as part of Operation Torc, which has been set up to investigate unsolicited pensions calls.

RHAP Ltd

21 September 2023, Enforcement notices, Marketing

RHAP Ltd made 15,288 marketing calls to individuals in breach of regulation 21 of PECR. The company was fined £65,000 and issued with an enforcement notice.

House Hold Appliances 247 Ltd

21 September 2023, Enforcement notices, Marketing

House Hold Appliances 247 Ltd made 19,069 marketing calls to individuals in breach of regulation 21 of PECR. The company was fined £55,000 and issued with an enforcement notice.

F12 Management Ltd

21 September 2023, Enforcement notices

F12 Management Ltd made 1,346,019 marketing calls to individuals in breach of regulation 21 of PECR. The company was fined £200,000 and issued with an enforcement notice.

Cover Appliance Limited

21 September 2023, Enforcement notices, Marketing

Cover Appliance Ltd made 511,499 marketing calls to individuals in breach of regulation 21 of PECR. The company was fined £200,000 and issued with an enforcement notice.

SGS Home Protect Ltd

21 September 2023, Enforcement notices, Marketing

SGS Home Protect Ltd made 24,214 marketing calls to individuals in breach of regulation 21 of PECR. The company was fined £70,000 and issued with an enforcement notice.

Simply Connecting Ltd

06 September 2023, Enforcement notices, Marketing

Simply Connecting Ltd sent 441,830 direct marketing text messages to individuals in breach of regulation 22 of PECR. The company was fined £40,000 and issued with an enforcement notice.

Fortis Insolvency Limited

28 June 2023, Enforcement notices

Fortis Insolvency Limited sent 558,354 direct marketing SMS messages without valid consent with 527,481 received by subscribers between 26 July 2020 and 26 July 2021 in contravention of regulation 22 of PECR. The company was fined £30,000 and issued with an enforcement notice.

Maxen Power Supply Limited

08 June 2023, Enforcement notices, Utilities

Maxen Power Supply Limited used overseas call centres to make unsolicited marketing calls to businesses in contravention of regulations 21 and 24 of PECR. The company was fined £120,000 and issued with an enforcement notice.

Crown Glazing Ltd

08 June 2023, Enforcement notices, Utilities

The case was part of Operation Tinago which was formed to assess and analyse complaint trends in relation to the energy and home improvements sector. The organisation made 503,445 unsolicited calls to TPS registered numbers between 4 January to 11 November 2021. The calls were about energy products to reduce household bills and resulted in a total of 37 complaints.

Ice Telecommunications Ltd

16 May 2023, Enforcement notices, Marketing

Ice Telecommunications Ltd made 72,682 unsolicited marketing calls to businesses registered with the CTPS or TPS between 13 September 2021 and 31 January 2022.

Shropshire Council

09 May 2023, Enforcement notices, Local government

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued an enforcement notice to Shropshire Council for its poor handling of requests made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.

Join the Triboo Limited

14 April 2023, Enforcement notices, Marketing

Between 1 August 2019 and 19 August 2020, a confirmed total of 107 million direct marketing messages were sent by Join the Triboo Limited and from those messages 437,324 were received by distinct individuals. This means that each individual received on average 244 emails during the relevant period and that those messages contained direct marketing material for which subscribers had not provided valid consent.

London Borough of Lewisham

21 March 2023, Enforcement notices, Local government

The London Borough of Lewisham has been served with an Enforcement Notice as a result of the evidence seen by the Commissioner about its performance in relation to its statutory duties under the Freedom of information Act (FOIA).

It's OK Limited

15 February 2023, Enforcement notices, Retail and manufacture

Between 1 July 2019 and 1 June 2020, It’s OK Limited engaged in the transmission of 1,752,149 unsolicited calls for direct marketing purposes to subscribers who had been registered with the TPS for not less than 28 days, and who had not notified It's OK Limited that they did not object to receiving such calls, contrary to regulation 21 of PECR.

Ryan Hill Partners

14 December 2022, Enforcement notices, Marketing

Between 1 September 2019 and 30 November 2020, Ryan Hill Partners sent 463,360 SMS messages, of which 409,468 were delivered, which were unsolicited direct marketing messages sent to subscribers who had not consented to receiving them, contrary to regulation 22 of PECR.

Monetise Media Limited

14 December 2022, Enforcement notices, Marketing

Between 28 July 2020 and 28 July 2021, Monetise Media Limited engaged in the transmission of a total of 3,506,157 direct marketing emails and text messages. These subscribers had not provided valid consent, contrary to the regulation 22 of PECR.  

Boiler Breakdown Limited

07 December 2022, Enforcement notices, Marketing

Boiler Cover Breakdown Limited (BCBL), based in Sutton, Surrey made 9,075 unsolicited direct marketing calls to people registered with the TPS between 1 January 2020 and 31 August 2020. Boiler Breakdown Limited (BBL) also based in Sutton, Surrey made 348,724 unsolicited direct marketing calls to people registered with the TPS during the same time period. Both companies have the same Director, with phone lines rented by one company used by both businesses to make calls. The ICO’s investigation found calls were specifically targeted towards vulnerable people. The ICO has fined BCBL £120,000 and BBL £140,000. Both companies have also been issued with an enforcement notice demanding they comply with the law within 30 days. Both companies have appealed to the First-tier Tribunal against the ICO’s monetary penalty notices.

Boiler Cover Breakdown Limited

07 December 2022, Enforcement notices, Marketing

Boiler Cover Breakdown Limited (BCBL), based in Sutton, Surrey made 9,075 unsolicited direct marketing calls to people registered with the TPS between 1 January 2020 and 31 August 2020. Boiler Breakdown Limited (BBL) also based in Sutton, Surrey made 348,724 unsolicited direct marketing calls to people registered with the TPS during the same time period. Both companies have the same Director, with phone lines rented by one company used by both businesses to make calls. The ICO’s investigation found calls were specifically targeted towards vulnerable people. The ICO has fined BCBL £120,000 and BBL £140,000. Both companies have also been issued with an enforcement notice demanding they comply with the law within 30 days. Both companies have appealed to the First-tier Tribunal against the ICO’s monetary penalty notices.

Repair Plans UK Limited

07 December 2022, Enforcement notices, Marketing

Repair Plans UK Limited (RPUK), based in Brighton made 21,347 unsolicited direct marketing calls to people registered with the TPS between 18 January 2021 and 7 September 2021. RPUK came to the attention of the ICO via West Sussex Trading Standards. The ICO’s investigation found the company targeted a specific demographic, as they bought data which asked for people aged 60+, were homeowners and had a landline, and made false and misleading statements during their calls. Throughout the investigation the company failed to provide any details of their compliant marketing procedures and the ICO found at least one incident of £180 being taken unnecessarily from a person’s bank account. The ICO has fined RPUK £70,000 and issued an enforcement notice demanding the company comply with the law within 30 days.

Utility Guard Limited

07 December 2022, Enforcement notices, Marketing

Utility Guard Limited (UGL), based in Chichester, West Sussex made 1,932 unsolicited direct marketing calls to people registered with the TPS between 4 August 2020 and 28 July 2021. The ICO investigation found the company did not hold a TPS licence, were calling customers, some of which were designated by “trueCall” as vulnerable, and had taken money from a person who has dementia. The company showed a wilful disregard of the law and failed to respond to multiple enquiries from the ICO. The ICO has fined UGL £20,000 and issued an enforcement notice demanding the company comply with the law within 30 days.