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Green Deal marketing firm fined £45k over nuisance calls

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By John Glenday, Reporter

July 9, 2013 | 2 min read

A marketing firm employed by the government to promote its Green Deal for householders has been fined £45k by the Information Commissioner’s Office for making thousands of nuisance calls.

Dodgy sales tactics employed by the Tameside Energy Preferences included harassing people to upgrade their loft insulation, solar panels, double glazing and central heating after they said they weren’t interested.

In one egregious case an 80 year old lady was bombarded with 20 sales calls despite repeated pleas to stop.

ICO director of operations, Simon Entwisle, said: “This is not the first and will not be the last monetary penalty issued by the ICO for unwanted marketing calls.

“These companies need to listen – bombarding the public with cold calls will not be tolerated. Were it not for the company’s poor financial position, this monetary penalty would have been £90,000.

“We are continuing our work with the industry, government and other regulators, including Ofcom, to co-ordinate our efforts to tackle this problem.

“We would like to see the law changed to make it simpler for us to punish companies responsible for repeated and continuous breaches of the law.”

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