12/2017 Virgin Media Ireland Limited

We received a complaint in May 2016 from an individual who had received unsolicited marketing telephone calls from Virgin Media Ireland Limited in March and in May 2016 after she had previously asked the company not to call her again. The complainant is a customer of Virgin Media Ireland Limited and she informed us that the calls promoted Virgin Media products. She advised us that when the company first called her in January 2016 she had asked that her details be placed on the “Do Not Call” list as she did not wish to receive any further marketing calls. She stated that when the company called her again in March 2016 she repeated that she wanted her details to be placed on the “Do Not Call” list but despite her two requests she had received a further unsolicited marketing telephone call to her mobile phone on 27 May 2016.

During our investigation of this complaint, Virgin Media Ireland Limited informed us that due to human error the complainant’s account was not updated correctly to record the “Do Not Call” requests. The company advised us that a review had been conducted on all “Do Not Call” requests handled by the team in question for the period from January 2016 to July 2016 to ensure that all opt-out requests had been completed correctly. It confirmed that the complainant’s details had been removed from the marketing database and it apologised for any inconvenience caused to her.

Prior to September 2015 Virgin Media Ireland Limited traded under the name UPC Communications Ireland Limited. That company had previously been prosecuted, convicted and fined in March 2011 and in April 2010 for twenty similar marketing offences involving telephone calls to subscribers who had not consented to the receipt of such marketing calls. The Data Protection Commissioner therefore decided to prosecute Virgin Media Ireland Limited in respect of the offences identified following the investigation of the latest complaint.

At Dublin Metropolitan District Court on 3 July 2017, Virgin Media Ireland Limited pleaded guilty to two charges of making unsolicited marketing telephone calls to its customer after she notified the company that she did not wish to receive such calls. The Court convicted the company on both charges and it imposed fines of €1,500 and €1,000 respectively on the charges. The defendant agreed to cover the prosecution costs of the Data Protection Commissioner.