Barrington Claims had already had its authorisation removed by the Ministry of Justice’s Claims Management Regulator when the ICO ordered it to pay a £250k fine

Barrington Claims has been fined £250k by the ICO after it breached consent rules.

The Port Talbot-based claims management company (CMC) used automated marketing calls to reach users who had not authorised it to do so.

Between 22 February 2016 and 23 May 2016, Barrington Claims made a total of 15.3m calls telling people they were entitled to a PPI refund. According to the ICO penalty notice, there were 41 complaints lodged against Barrington Claims over this period.

The CMC was using an outbound dialling platform to upload a message and transmit such vast numbers of automated calls.

Although the ICO tried to contact Barrington Claims a number of times, the company did not respond and was slapped with the fine on 11 January 2017. The CMC had already been stripped of its authorisation in April 2017, by the Ministry of Justice’s Claims Management Regulator.

Unless it appeals, Barrington Claims now has until 8 February to pay a reduced fine of £200k, or it will have to pay the full amount.

 

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