Regulations Hub Update - April 2020

This article is written by Steve Sullivan who is the Deputy Chair of the Contact Centre Council.

ICO

Unsurprisingly, the Information Commissioner’s Office has made no enforcement rulings in the contact centre or marketing world since March’s Update.

However, the ICO has offered some reassuring data protection guidance to contact centre operations which have had to rapidly switch to home-working:

Obviously, this doesn’t mean that organisations are exempt from the requirements of GDPR and the Data Protection Act, but it’s good to know that the ICO will be taking a pragmatic view of things.

As you will know, the consultation period on the ICO’s Draft Direct Marketing Code has now closed. Subject to any Covid-19-related delays, the finalised version of the Code is due to be published later this year.

In the meantime, here’s an article we wrote, reviewing the draft Code from a contact centre perspective.

Controversial pay day loans operation, Uncle Buck, has been placed in administration after the FCA became concerned about its financial position an stopped it making new loans.

The FCA has announced a series of measures to ease financial pressure on consumers due to the impact of Covid-19. These include firms being expected to:

• Offer a temporary payment freeze on loans and credit cards for up to three months, for consumers negatively impacted by coronavirus
• Allow customers who are negatively impacted by coronavirus and who already have an arranged overdraft on their main personal current account, up to £500 charged at zero interest for three months
• Make sure that all overdraft customers are no worse off on price when compared to the prices they were charged before the recent overdraft pricing changes came into force
• Ensure consumers using any of these temporary payment freeze measures will not have their credit file affected

Ofgem has transferred the 9,000 customers of failed GnERGY to Bulb Energy. In an example of true niche marketing, Farnborough-based GnERGY targeted the UK Nepalese market and was ‘managed by former Gurkas’.

Somehow, BT-owned EE managed to not implement Ofcom's 118 Directory Enquiries price cap in time, last year, resulting in 6,000 customers being overcharged £10,000. Partly because 118 usage is most prevalent among older and more vulnerable customers, Ofcom has fined BT £245,000 and ensured that all customers who were left out of pocket are compensated.

The PSA has fined MobBill (UK) £400k for running its Gamazing service, which generated thousands of complaints after consumers were unable to cancel due to the text unsubscribe facility not working and the customer care operation being unable – or unwilling - to handle calls.

The Fundraising Regulator’s recent guidance on fundraising under Covid-19 includes a ban on face-to-face and event fundraising and an acknowledgement that direct marketing and non-face to face methods will become even more vital in maintaining charities’ incomes.

The FR has published the results of its survey of registered charities. Just under 10% responded and those that did seemed happy with the FR and 92% had “engaged with” its revised Code of Practice.

Last month we mentioned the Fundraising Regulator has published its 2018/19 Complaints Report. This shows that complaints received by the FR were down by 33%, but charities were found to be in breach of the Code of Fundraising Practice, with the key areas of fundraiser failing being:

• The safeguarding vulnerable people
• The use of misleading information in fundraising communications; and
• A failure to observe ‘no charity bag’ signs when fundraising using clothing collections

The first of these is likely to be a familiar area of concern for contact centres, in all sectors.

No contact centre news this month from the TPS or the payments world.

Content accurate as of 13^th April 2020

Find the latest update here

Previous regulation update:

March 2020 update

More from the Contact Centre Council:

The Future of the Contact Centre
Outbound Telemarketing Campaigns Guide
Is your contact centre ready for changes to the European Payment Services Directive?