A SCOTS firm approved by government as green energy advisers has said they will never use automatic dialling machines again after being fined a record £200,000
by the UK information regulator for sending six million nuisance cold calls over three months.
Cambuslang-based Home Energy & Lifestyle Management Ltd (HELM), received the penalty from the Information Commissioner's Office who ruled that the firm"recklessly" broke marketing call regulations in their campaign which offered "free" solar panels.
But HELM which is listed as one of the authorised assessors by the Department of Energy and Climate Change as part of the government''s Green Deal initiative, says it will appeal the fine and raised concern they could go out of business if other regulatory authorities take action against them.
It is planning to take legal proceedings against an unidentified third party company which they said provided the software for the marketing campaign using an
automatic dialling machine.
Asked if the company was happy about the use of automatic dialling machines to contact people, HELM's solicitor Paul Santoni said: "No, absolutely not. Theyaccept that is entirely wrong.
"They accepted from day one they got it wrong in terms of regulations. We are saying that it wasn't deliberate act to breach the regulations.
"They have never done a campaign like this before and they never intend to do one again. They are holding their hands up."
The company has instructed specialist senior counsel in London to draft an appeal saying they do not believe the ICO considered their explanation and mitigation."
ICO said HELM failed to abide by the direct marketing rules which state any organisation making automated calls has to make sure that they have the permission
of the targeted consumer, and they must identify who they are. ICO said HELM admitted they did not know what the rules were.
Christopher Graham, the information commissioner, said that the calls had caused “intense annoyance” and that some people were getting several a day.
Mr Santoni said: "What we are saying is that not one tiny bit of our mitigation, where we say there is uncertainty over how many numbers were actually called (wastaken into account)."
HELM's believe that just 60,000 consumers were affected by calls, and that 1.7 million of the calls were to disconnected phones.
"There are one or two issues we are concerned about, for instance the suggestion that HELMS made a misrepresentation saying there were free solar panels available," said Mr Santoni. We don't think the content of the messages has anything to do with the Information Commissioner.
"What the regulations say is if you want to make an automated call to a person, they have to specifically opt in to that particular call for that particular product.
"What they decided to do was they thought this (using an automatic dialling machine) was an effective way of doing a campaign and they got it completely wrong, they misinterpreted the regulations but that is no defence, and they accepted that unequivocally.
"The reality is that because of what they have done the likelihood is that all the other regulatory authorities are going to hound on our clients and potentially put them out of business, because they can say this is a breach, for example, of the Renewable Energy Consumer Code and of any other regulatory body they are required to be a members of.
"It is not simply the fine but the knock on effect."
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