ICO fines three companies £415K for nuisance marketing

Colour Car Sales Ltd (CCSL) of Stoke-on-Trent

A credit intermediary for used car finance company have been fined £170,000 for sending spam text messages directing people to a number of car finance websites.

The messages were sent during October 2018 to January 2020. The fine follows after the ICO received numerous complaints from people who had received them.

Solarwave of Grays, Essex

Betweeen January and October 2020, the company made 73,217 unsolicited marketing calls to people who were registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) list and who should not have received tem

The complaints received by both the Commisioner and TPS suggest that Solarwave were ignoring stop requests.  The company has been fined £100,000.

LTH Holding, Cardiff

A telephone marketing company has been fined £145,000 for making 1.4 million calls selling funeral plans to people who were also registered with the TPS for a year between May 2019 and May 2020.

The ICO received 41 complaints of which people reported LTH to be aggressive, coercive and using persuasive methods in its direct marketing.

With all three cases, the companies did not have the valid consent required to send direct marketing and thus violating the Privacy and Electronics Communications Regulations 2003.

“Companies that bombard people with messages and calls they haven’t asked for, to sell them products and services they don’t want, are not only a nuisance but can also cause huge distress, particularly to the more vulnerable. That’s why we’ve taken the robust action set out here today.

“Organisations are responsible for making sure the people they send marketing to have given their permission. They must also make sure they do not contact people who are registered with the Telephone Preference Service list.”

Andy Curry, ICO Head of Investigations