The UK's data protection authority, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), fined Elderly Aids Ltd £190,000, a company that sold call-blocking devices. The company was ultimately penalised for the exact opposite of what it promised its customers, by itself making hundreds of thousands of unsolicited marketing calls.
Between May 2024 and February 2025, Elderly Aids Ltd made 758,053 unsolicited direct marketing calls to numbers registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), which is the British service where citizens can register their number to avoid marketing calls.
Many of these calls were specifically directed at elderly people, potentially exploiting the vulnerability of this age group. The company sold devices to block unwanted calls while using the same aggressive marketing techniques it claimed to combat.
The ICO, the regulator responsible for data protection and enforcing rules on marketing communications in the UK, imposed the fine as punishment for violating data protection rules and regulations on unsolicited marketing calls.
