Cold-calling company Kuerboom has been fined a record £400,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office after they received over 1,000 complaints from “upset and distressed” people.
Although the ICO was unable to fine the company’s director, the government are in the process of introducing a new law allowing the watchdog to fine the bosses of nuisance call firms.
The calls from the company were regarding PPI compensation and road-traffic accidents, which were received at multiple times a day and at unsociable hours. Calls were also made from a hidden number, making it harder for people receiving the calls to complain.
Keurboom director Greg Rudd admitted that nuisance calls were “annoying” but they were also “a part of life”.
“I don’t enjoy receiving them but that doesn’t make them illegal,” he added.
ICO’s head of enforcement, Steve Eckerlsey, said: “Keurboom showed scant regard for the rules, causing upset and distress to people unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of one its 100 million calls,”
“The unprecedented scale of its campaign and Keurboom’s failure to cooperate with our investigation has resulted in the largest fine issued by the information commissioner for nuisance calls.
“These calls have now stopped – as has Keurboom – but our work has not. We’ll continue to track down companies that blight people’s lives with nuisance calls, texts and emails.” he added.
Kuerboom have received the highest fine ever given for nuisance call. The previous record fine was for Prodial, who were fined £350,000 in February 2016 after making 46 million nuisance calls.
IPO have said that 2016/17 was the busiest year for nuisance call investigations. In total, £1.9 million worth of fines has been given to 23 companies.
The ICO fined TalkTalk (LON:TALK) £400,000 in September 2016 under the Data Protection Act for failing to prevent an attack on its systems.