Figures released by The SMS Works for January reveal that they are ramping up the pressure on companies that break the rules by issuing record fines for the month. The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) say they won’t hand out huge fines on day one after GDPR kicks in, but January has been a record-breaking month for fines. Since August 2015, The Information Commissioner’s Office has fined 104 organisations a total of £8.7 million for breaches in data security and anti-spam regulations.

In January 2018, nine separate companies were fined the highest amount for any one month. Fines were issued for all the main types of offences that the ICO oversees; Email spam, SMS spam, nuisance call and data protection breaches. The total in monetary penalties reached a new high of £1.7 million in January. For context, a total of £4.9 million was raised in the whole of 2017, this new record represents an increase of 312% above the average monthly figure for 2017.

Nuisance Call Companies Under Siege

Companies that persist in blighting people’s lives with automated calls at home will have little room for manoeuvre as the ICO focuses its efforts on irradiating the practice.

Companies responsible for spam phone calls were handed fines totaling £900,000, 54% of all fines for January. One notable case was Holmes Financial Solutions Ltd who were fined £300,000 after they instigated 8.7 million automated phone calls to individuals without their prior consent.

Commenting on the case, ICO Head of Enforcement, Steve Eckersley, said: “The company paid no heed to laws on telephone marketing and showed no concern for the distress they were causing people, by making huge volumes of invasive calls. The ICO will not tolerate companies who blatantly disregard the law and Holmes Financial Solutions Ltd has paid the price for their negligence.”

Financial Services Incur the Largest Number of Fines

Financial services firms topped the hall of shame with 44% of fines in January being targeted at the sector. The ICO has the power to fine companies up to £500,000 for breaking the rules.

When GDPR comes into effect on May 25th, the ICO’s powers will increase still further, with the maximum possible fine rising to 20 million Euros or 4% of global turnover, whichever is the greater. The fines data should act as a wake-up call to all companies and organizations that process and handle consumer data. The clock is ticking and companies that haven’t done so already, need to urgently address data security before the deadline.