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12|05|09

Record year for fines issued by Ofcom

A new Ofcom report published today reveals the range of enforcement action that the regulator has taken to protect listeners, viewers, telecoms customers and people using the airwaves.

Ofcom’s first Enforcement Report covers the three main areas where Ofcom takes enforcement action. The report reveals that during 2008:

• Broadcasting - Ofcom issued a record amount of broadcasting financial sanctions for breaches of the Broadcasting Code. The Code is designed to protect people who watch television programmes and listen to the radio. Ofcom issued fines totalling almost £7.83m during the year for breaches of the Code.
• Telecoms - Ofcom opened new consumer protection investigations to protect people from silent calls, mis-selling and undesirable sales practices. We fined companies who broke the rules on silent calls over £100,000 and took formal action against companies who broke the rules on transferring broadband providers.
• Airwaves - Ofcom conducted raids and prosecuted 28 criminals for illegal use of the airwaves, which can cause interference to communications systems used by safety-of-life services, as well as licensed radio stations.

All fines imposed by Ofcom are payable to HM Paymaster General.

Ofcom uses a range of legal powers to take enforcement action. Often we open investigations after being alerted to issues by the public. In 2008, Ofcom’s Central Operations team handled around 20,000 enquiries a month, some of which were referred to Ofcom’s three main investigations teams, as complaints from the public are an important source of evidence for enforcement action. Consumer protection cases now account for over half of the investigations opened compared to 10 per cent in 2004.

Protecting viewers and listeners

During 2008 Ofcom investigated 879 cases, found 214 breaches and imposed 29 statutory sanctions.

The majority of the sanctions related to issues with programmes which directly encouraged viewers to participate, often through the use of costly telephone calls or text messages, known as premium rate services. In 2008, Ofcom recorded the largest ever single fine against a TV programme of £3 million and the largest ever fine for radio content of £1.11 million. Details of all of Ofcom’s broadcasting sanctions can be found here http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/obb/ocsc_adjud/

As well as making sure the offending broadcasters were punished for their part in these deceptions, all major broadcasters re-evaluated their compliance procedures in order to safeguard audience trust and undertook extensive compliance and training courses to guard against future problems.

Protecting telecoms customers

During 2008 Ofcom opened 17 investigations and three enforcement programmes covering both competition and consumer issues.

Financial penalties totalling £121,000 were imposed on four companies for making silent and abandoned calls including fining one company the maximum £50,000.

Silent calls can be very frightening, particularly for people who live alone. In the vast majority of cases, these silent calls are not made by pranksters, burglars or stalkers. In fact they’re the work of a machine, called a predictive dialler, used by call centres to phone large numbers of people. These can generate more calls than the call centre can deal with. Ofcom’s rules state that these must not exceed a certain number and that operators must put other safeguards in place, like pre-recorded messages.

Michelle Mitchell, charity director for Help the Aged and Age Concern, said: “Silent calls cause anxiety and distress to those on the receiving end. We are very pleased that Ofcom has taken action to reduce the incidence of these calls and has produced an informative guide telling people how they complain.”

Ofcom intends to take further action against companies who break the rules on silent calls during 2009.

Protecting the airwaves

Illegal broadcasting

Illegal broadcasting – or pirate radio – is a significant problem in the UK’s major urban areas. Safety of life services – our ambulance, fire, police and air traffic control services – as well as licensed BBC, commercial and local community radio stations can suffer interference from these illegal stations.

During 2008 Ofcom carried out 36 studio raids, secured 28 prosecutions and 14 formal cautions, removed 489 illegal transmitters and issued 74 written warnings to combat illegal broadcasting activities.

David Brown, Assistant Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade said: “London Fire Brigade’s radio can suffer interference from unlawful illegal radio broadcasters due to the strength of their illegal signals. This can cause complications when staff in our Brigade Control and in our fire engines and other vehicles across London attempt to communicate with each other.

“This could cause serious consequences in preventing Brigade Control from directing fire fighting staff to incidents and thus endangering the lives of the public. We support Ofcom’s work in tackling this issue.”

Illegal equipment

The growth of e-commerce has created opportunities for some sellers of illegal wireless equipment to reach new markets and customers. Some websites are specifically used to market illegal equipment such as mobile phone jammers, FM bugs, broadcaster transmitters, handheld transceivers and wireless CCTV. These devices can cause serious interference to legal wireless devices.

In 2008 Ofcom carried out 126 illegal equipment investigations resulting in 46 written warnings, 420 online listings removed and six members of an online sales site suspended. In addition we secured four convictions, a formal caution and seized illegal apparatus from people that had produced non-compliant apparatus to be sold in the UK.

Further details about Ofcom’s work on protecting the airwaves can be found here: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/ifi/enforcement/

Ofcom Chief Executive, Ed Richards said “Our report highlights the firm action we have taken to protect consumers. Wherever it is necessary we will take action to endure the public interest is met.”

The full Enforcement Report can be found at: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/enforcement/enforcement_report/.

Ends.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. Advice for consumers on broadcasting, telecoms and interference to the airwaves can be found at: www.ofcom.org.uk/consumeradvice/.

2. Ofcom is the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, with responsibilities across television, radio, telecommunications and wireless communications services.

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