Record fine for company behind nearly 100 million nuisance calls

The watchdog said it had received 1,036 complaints about automated calls "sent or instigated" by Keurboom Communications. The calls invited recipients to raise claims for road traffic accidents or for compensation for mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI).

Keurboom Communications did not have the necessary prior consent to engage in the marketing activity from the people it targeted with the 99,535,654 calls, and was in "serious contravention" of the UK's Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), the ICO said (12-page / 1.69MB PDF).

The company has subsequently been placed in liquidation, but the ICO said it is trying to recover the fine it has imposed from "the liquidator and insolvency practitioners".

Steve Eckersley, head of enforcement at the ICO, 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 100million calls. The unprecedented scale of its campaign and Keurboom’s failure to co-operate 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 said.

The fine issued by the ICO to Keurboom Communications is the highest it has ever issued for a breach of PECR. It previously fined TalkTalk £400,000 for a serious breach of the Data Protection Act after the company suffered a data breach affecting approximately 157,000 customers