Elderly Aids Limited (EAL) has been fined £190,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for making nearly 760,000 nuisance cold calls to elderly people between May 2024 and February last year. The calls promoted call-blocking devices and were made to individuals registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).
Misleading and aggressive calls
The ICO said EAL deliberately targeted elderly people, and complaints revealed that callers were “aggressive, misleading, and often failed to identify themselves”. The TPS allows people and businesses to opt out of unsolicited sales and marketing calls, and it is illegal to make a live marketing call to anyone registered with the service unless they have given permission to be contacted by a specific organisation.
Investigation and accountability
According to the ICO, EAL repeatedly ignored requests for information and continued to make nuisance calls during the investigation. The company also tried to strike itself off the Companies House register amid the probe.
Andy Curry, head of investigations at the ICO, said: “Not only did this company target vulnerable people who had explicitly asked not to be called – they harassed them to sell call-blocking devices. EAL showed a complete disregard for the law and the people they were hounding. This penalty should serve as a clear warning to any business that thinks the law does not apply to them – we will hold them to account for both exploiting people in this way and trying to avoid accountability.”
