Glasgow company fined for making 700,000 unsolicited sales calls

A Glasgow company has been fined £160,000 after making over 700,000 unsolicited sales calls to numbers which had opted out of receiving marketing inquiries.

Regulator the Information Commissioner's Office said the actions by Energy Prices Direct Limited represented a "clear breach of law".

The company describes itself as one of the UK's largest energy-buying consortiums, but employees often failed to identify themselves as being from EPDL when phoning people.

Staff called people and businesses who had opted out of marketing calls by registering on the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS) between January 2024 and January 2025.

One business owner said that despite having subscribed to the TPS, they were "bombarded" with daily calls from EPDL about switching energy suppliers or using a meter.

In a call transcript, another recipient said an EPDL employee claimed they were from "what sounded like the ECB."

They went on to deny they were making a sales call saying: "No, this is not a sales and marketing call, I just wanted to share our electricity prices with you."

The ICO investigation discovered data used to make calls had been purchased without establishing whether the numbers had been screened against the TPS or CTPS.

There were also instances where EPDL - based in Firhill in Glasgow, near the home ground of football club Partick Thistle - could not identify the source of the data they were using.

Andy Curry, head of investigations at the ICO, said Energy Prices Direct Limited had shown "blatant disregard for laws designed to protect people and businesses from nuisance marketing".

He added: "Not only was the company careless with its caller data but employees were, in some cases, deceptive about their reasons for calling.

"They made an exceptionally high volume of unsolicited calls over a 12-month period, often in a persistent manner, in an attempt to sell services."

Curry said companies needed to undertake "robust compliance checks" when buying and using marketing data.

Guidelines set out in the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations state companies must not make live marketing calls to anyone registered with the TPS or CTPS unless they have explicit consent.

Organisations are also legally required to screen their calling lists against both registers before making calls.