Ofcom urged to make TPS stricter on businesses

by Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 23-May-06, 07:00

LONDON - Ofcom should strengthen its rules on nuisance sales calls and insist telemarketers pay cash penalties to consumers if they break the rules, according to a study on the future of telecommunications regulation.

The study has been published by the European Policy Forum as part of ongoing coverage of regulatory affairs and was authored by economist Keith Boyfield.

It coincides with Ofcom's current review of the Telephone Preference Service and is critical of the TPS, describing it as less effective than the US Do Not Call register.

"In the UK, customers who have registered with the TPS find that they continue to receive annoying sales calls. The TPS website is difficult to navigate and the site poses a list of questions which most complainants are unlikely to be able to answer, including name, postal address and postcode of the nuisance caller. Nor is there a satisfactory follow-up mechanism to deal with complaints," the report says.

It argues that the UK could learn from the "far more effective" Do Not Call system, which operates in the US under the auspices of the Federal Trade Commission.

"Under the US scheme, which consumers find easy to use, there is a highly effective system of penalties with fines equivalent to more than £5,000 for persistent telemarketers. Customers can recover cash penalties of £250 each time they are pestered," it says.

In the UK, the maximum penalty is £5,000. TPS registrations have now exceeded 12m.

Pic: Getty Images

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