UK ISP TalkTalk has been hit with a £750,000 (€877,037) fine for making an excessive number of abandoned and silent calls during a marketing campaign in 2011.
Domestic regulator Ofcom levied the fine as part of its efforts to cut down on nuisance calls made by communications service providers. An investigation found that call centers used by TalkTalk made around 9,000 silent and abandoned calls to consumers during a marketing push in February and March 2011, breaking daily limits set by Ofcom on four occasions in total.
The regulator stipulates that no more than 3% of calls made in a 24 hour period during marketing campaigns can be silent.
“Silent and abandoned calls can cause annoyance and distress to consumers,” explains Claudio Pollack, consumer group director at Ofcom, adding. “Today’s penalty sends out a strong message to organizations using call centers that they must comply or face the consequences.
A TalkTalk spokesperson told the BBC it has stopped using the two call centers responsible for the breaches, and is seeking to recover the fine from them.