Businesses across the UK are being threatened with legal action
unless they pay three times more than necessary to register under
the Data Protection Act.
Computer Weekly has also learned that the threats are continuing
despite claims by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) that it has
taken action to stop them.
It has further emerged that collectors armed with identification
cards and receipt books are calling on businesses and requesting
payment for data protection registration. Information commissioner
Elizabeth France says businesses should notify the police and not
make any payment.
The sharp practices take advantage of confusion and uncertainty in
the IT and other industries over which businesses must register and
which are exempt from the Data Protection Act.
Official-looking forms, headed "Final Notice", are being targeted
at small and medium-sized businesses, giving the impression that
companies have committed a criminal act by failing to register
under the Data Protection Act 1998, for which they could be fined
up to £5,000. The forms also give the impression - incorrectly -
that they have been sent by the office of the information
commissioner, and that directors must register immediately by
sending £95.
The actual registration fee is £35 - and many of the businesses
sent the forms are exempt from registration or have already
registered.
But some IT directors and managers, even those who had already
registered their businesses, may have felt pressured to send the
£95 rather than spend time trying to correct what could have been
an official mistake.
In May, the OFT issued a statement that "misleading business
advertising for data protection notification services has been
halted following OFT action in the High Court".
A High Court judge had issued an injunction against specific firms
and individuals, but Computer Weekly has learned that the
threatening letters continue to be sent. Some "Final Notice" forms
have been sent out in the past month; and several local newspapers
around the UK have recently published complaints from businesses
that have been targeted.