The Commission for Communications Regulation and the Data Protection Commissioner have formally intervened with phone company TalkTalk, regarding serious failures in the exercise of its obligations in relation to contacting customers.
A number of consumers had complained to ComReg about receiving cold-calls from TalkTalk, despite having expressed a preference not to receive such unsolicited direct marketing calls.
ComReg and the Data Protection Commissioner instructed TalkTalk to immediately cease all direct marketing sales activities until it had audited and rectified all procedural defects.
Under the 2003 Data Protection and Privacy Regulations, it is an offence for a person to make an unsolicited telephone call for the purpose of direct marketing where the line subscriber has notified the operator that it does not consent to the receipt of such a call.
TalkTalk said that due to data integrity issues in its internal processes, some consumers who had previously registered a preference not to be contacted for marketing calls were inadvertently contacted. The telephone company issued a public apology for its mistake.
