Lib Dem Calls were Not MR, Not Lawful

In the UK, the Information Commissioner Richard Thomas has ruled that calls made by the Liberal Democrat party to 250,000 homes on September 17 were direct marketing rather than market research as claimed, and were therefore unlawful.

The calls consisted of a pre-recorded message from party leader Nick Clegg, followed by automated questions on the party's policies, and went out to voters in 50 marginal seats. Recipients who stayed on the phone long enough were asked to indicate their feelings about certain policies and areas by tapping numbers on their handsets, which the party claimed would enable them to see which areas of policy were of most concern. The Lib Dems cited successful use of this approach by the Democratic Party in the US.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) had warned the party in advance that there was a possible breach involved, but the Lib Dems went ahead, apparently confident that after further investigation the ICO would rule them to be genuine MR. Yesterday's ruling means the party will be committing a crime if it makes further such calls, and a party spokesperson says it will abide by the ruling and not appeal.

Officials of the ICO said 26 members of the public had complained, and that the party should have been well aware of its previous rulings. Deputy Information Commissioner David Smith said the ICO had 'consistently made clear that the promotion of a political party counts as marketing. We have previously issued detailed guidance to all major political parties on this subject.' He added: 'Many people find unsolicited automated calls particularly intrusive and annoying'.

The ruling has brough particularlty scathing comments from the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), which was reported to the commissioner by The Lib Dems after a similar cold-calling campaign in 2005. SNP MSP for Central Fife Tricia Marwick criticised both the Lib Dems… 'Having reported other parties for making similar calls and having run a campaign against unwanted telesales calls themselves, the Lib Dems were well aware of their actions.' - and the ICO itself: 'Given the Information Commissioner's Office had 12 hours notice of the Liberal Democrats intention to make these calls it is disappointing that the Commissioner did not act to stop the calls being made and the law being broken in the first place. What point is there to an enforcement notice when the calls have already been made? I will be raising questions with the Commissioner over this delay in acting.'


Also in the UK, Barclaycard has today been fined a maximum £50,000 by the telecoms watchdog for making 'nuisance' silent calls to its customers. Ofcom's statement said the calls were not the result of 'malicious intent' but constituted the worst case of 'persistent misuse' of a communications network it has ever investigated. The investigation took place between October 2006 and May 2007. Ofcom has already fined Abbey National and a number of blue chip firms for similar infringements.


Web sites: www.ofcom.org.uk , www.ico.gov.uk and www.libdems.org.uk .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.