COLOURCOAT LTD – €152,100 Fine (United Kingdom, 2021)

Between 1 August 2019 to March 2020 ColourCoat made repeat unsolicited marketing calls to subscribers. These calls resulted in a number of complaints to the ICO, which opened an investigation on 1 June 2020. The ICO found that ColourCoat contravened Regulations 21 and 24 of PECR because * 969,273 connected calls were all made for the purposes of direct marketing as defined by section 122(5) DPA 2018; * Of these calls, 452,811 were made to numbers which had been registered on the opt-out TPS or CTPS Registers, for more than 28 days; * ColourCoat made repeat calls to subscribers who had informed ColourCoat that they did not wish to receive such calls. * ColourCoat used telephone numbers on which the recipients of the calls could not contact ColourCoat, via Caller Line Identities ('CLI's); * ColourCoat used various false company names (including "Homes Advice Bureau", "EcoSolve UK" and "Citizens Advice") and/or did not identify itself. The ICO found that the conditions for the imposition of a monetary penalty under section 55A of the UK's national Data Protection Act, were met. It concluded that the contravention was deliberate, as, among other things, ColourCoat had deliberately sought to disguise its identity to avoid detection, and was aware from previous marketing calls that subscribers no longer wish to receive such calls. It further held that the contravention was serious, as there were multiple breaches of Regulations 21 and 24 PCR over an eight month period, leading to a substantial number of unsolicited direct marketing calls. Calls made were also described by complainants as “rude”, “aggressive” and “abusive”, and made one complainant feel “threatened”