Direct Marketing Association expels Reactiv Media over nuisance PPI calls
The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has expelled Reactiv Media from its membership after the Direct Marketing Commission (DMC) upheld complaints made about the company for making PPI nuisance calls.
The industry watchdog received complaints from consumers registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) about West Yorkshire-based Reactiv Media for unsolicited live calls on PPI mis-selling between April and September 2013.
The DMC found failures over consumer consent, the requirement for named third-party permissions and identifying themselves when making calls and concluded that DMA rules banning calls to people registered with the TPS had been broken.
Reactiv Media, whose callers presented themselves as representatives of a ‘consumer helpline’, were warned by the DMC of their obligations as a DMA member, but failed to respond to requests to review and change their processes and continued to generate complaints about their activities.
Julia Porter, chair of the DMA board, commented: “Putting the customer at the heart of your one-to-one communications is essential to building trust in your brand and trust in the channels you use. Reactiv Media refused our help to ensure they adhere to the law and our code of practice, which is there to protect the consumer and the reputation of the industry. It is for this reason we had to strip the company of its DMA membership.”
Last week, the Government published its action plan on nuisance calls, recommending that companies follow the DMA’s code of practice, as well as become TPS Assured accredited.
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Direct Marketing Association (DMA)