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	Irish Data Protection Commission Case Studies
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Irish Data Protection Commission Case Studies >> N.C.L. - Ordered to suspend marketing [2007] IEDPC 4 URL: http://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IEDPC/2007/4.html Cite as: [2007] IEDPC 4

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N.C.L. - Ordered to suspend marketing [2007] IEDPC 4 (2 August 2007)

The marketing activities of the telecommunications company N.C.L. came to the attention of my Office in 2006 and again early in 2007. In 2006 an inspection was conducted of its marketing activities and appeared to indicate that it had taken appropriate remedial activity. However, in 2007 we received in a short period a number of complaints regarding marketing calls made by this company. These calls were made to individuals who either had already expressly told the company that they did not wish to be contacted or had exercised their right to have their preference not to be called recorded on the National Directory Database opt-out register.

These marketing calls contravened Regulations 13 4(a) and 13 4(b) of SI 535 of 2003 which state that:

"A person shall not use, or cause to be used, any publicly available electronic communications service to make an unsolicited telephone call for the purpose of direct marketing to the line of a subscriber, where 

(a) the subscriber has notified the person that the subscriber does not consent to the receipt of such a call on his, her or its line, or

(b) subject to paragraph (5), the relevant information referred to in Regulation 14(3) is recorded in respect of the line in the National Directory Database."


My Office investigated the complaints which we had received. After initial investigation, we found out that an external offshore agency employed by N.C.L. to make marketing calls was not following the company's "do not call" policy. As a result of this information, N.C.L. ceased its relationship with the offshore agency concerned in March 2007. However, my Office continued to receive complaints about further unsolicited calls made by N.C.L.. We concluded that, despite assurances from the company, its marketing procedures were not sufficiently robust or watertight to uphold the data protection rights of subscribers who did not wish to receive direct marketing calls. We accordingly requested N.C.L. to cease all 'cold call' marketing with immediate effect or we would issue a legally binding enforcement notice to that effect. We informed the company that we would not agree to allow this marketing activity to recommence until it had identified and remedied whatever problems in its procedures or systems had led to the unsolicited marketing calls to the complainants to my Office.


N.C.L. complied with my Office's request and it initiated an internal investigation. As a result of this investigation, the company established that a second offshore agency was not following the company's "do not call" policy. Recognising the seriousness of the matter, the company suspended this agency from marketing on its behalf. My Office was satisfied with the actions taken by the company to identify the problems and to correct them. Following this remedial action, we agreed that N.C.L. could recommence its telemarketing activities. Its 'cold calling' marketing campaign had been suspended for a total of twenty days as a result of the actions taken by my Office.


This case demonstrates that my Office will take strong and effective action, such as requiring the suspension of marketing activities, where necessary. Complaints about telemarketing from the general public are an indicator of problems in the procedures or systems in companies which operate in the telemarketing sector. My Office continues to ensure that those companies complained of take immediate steps to identify the problems and then sort them out without delay. If the suspension of a company's marketing activities is necessary to achieve corrective measures, we will not hesitate to require such action, difficult though it may be for the company concerned.

Telephone subscribers can have their preference not to be contacted by direct marketers recorded on the National Directory Database (NDD) by contacting their line provider who will supply the relevant details to the NDD.