Where's The Money, Lebowski? UK Data Watchdog Says £7M In Fines Unpaid Since 2015
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
The UK's data watchdog has confirmed it failed to collect up to 7m worth of fines dished out in the past four years.
Since 2015, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued 152 penalties totalling 16.6m, of which 47 remain unpaid, according to Freedom of Information responses issued to SMS API company The SMS Works.
The claims management industry was the worst, receiving a total of 3.2m in fines since 2015 mainly due to nuisance calls. However, just 490,000 has so far been collected.
The largest outstanding amount is an unpaid 400,000 fine to Keurboom Communications, a company behind 99.5 million nuisance calls in 2017.
Financial punishment for data breaches have had the greatest success rate, with 85 per cent accounted for.
[...] "Some nuisance call directors liquidate their firms to avoid paying fines from the ICO. In December 2018, the law changed to make directors themselves responsible for nuisance marketing. This should have a real deterrent effect on those who deliberately set out to disrupt people with troublesome calls, texts and emails."
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