TOP bosses will face the chop if their companies plague people with cold calls
under radical new plans, The Sun can reveal.
A cross-party group of MPs and consumer watchdogs want directors to be
disqualified if their businesses breach marketing rules.
It would be the first time senior executives are held publicly accountable for
nuisance calls.
Under the rules, directors would be responsible for ensuring their company
does not call anyone who has already opted out of junk mail or marketing
messages.
Sticking to the Telephone Preference Service list will be a “board level
priority”.
Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which?, told The Sun: “Millions of us are
bombarded by nuisance calls and texts and consumers are sick and tired of
this everyday menace.
“We want the Government to make sure company bosses know the buck stops with
them when it comes to cutting off unwanted calls.”
Which? claims more than 80 per cent of us get an unsolicited call to our
landline every month – but more than half of all Brits now routinely get an unsolicited
marketing text.
A series of recommendations are set to be handed to Culture Minister Ed Vaizey
before Christmas.Last year two companies owned by BBC ‘Call Centre’ reality
TV star Neville
“Big Nev” Wilshire was fined £225,000 for making nuisance calls.
Unwanted calls by Mr Wilshire’s staff to to 2,700 complaints between May 2011
and December 2012.
Which? has long campaigned for tighter control on companies’ use of personal
data. It wants to limit the time companies can contact people who opt-in to
receive marketing messages.
And it wants new laws to govern how the data can be shared or sold on to third
parties.