Direct marketing in law firms: the latest from the Information Commissioner

The latest ICO direct marketing enforcements (5 December 2024) are against Bolton-based Breathe Services Limited, which marketed debt management solutions, and Oldham-based Money Bubble Limited.

Over just 8 months in 2022 the ICO states that ‘Breathe bombarded people’ making nearly 4.75m unsolicited calls, spoofing the origination number, including calls to TPS-registered numbers. The tsunami of calls generated over 250 complaints, resulting in an ICO investigation and a fine of £170,000.

Also, for making nearly 170,000 unsolicited life policy sales calls in just one month in 2022, resulting in four complaints from TPS-registered numbers, Oldham-based Money Bubble Limited was fined £120,000. Many of the complainants were vulnerable people, including older people and people with disabilities. Breathe even called a student five times during an exam, resulting in the student’s exam paper being voided.

What can law firms learn from this?

Rule 5.1(e) of the Code of Conduct requires firms dealing with introduced work to ensure that ‘any client referred by an introducer has not been acquired in a way which would breach the SRA’s regulatory arrangements if the person acquiring the client were regulated by the SRA.’ This underscores the importance of having a robust introducer agreement, which ensures that potential clients have not been sourced in breach of SRA requirements. Ideally firms should also audit prospective and actual introducers to verify that introduced work is compliant, for example checking the ICO enforcement register for actioned breaches and requiring a written description of marketing activity with guarantees of no departure. Firms in a strong position might even seek an indemnity.

Direct marketing calls as described above are not permitted under SRA rules: it’s critical to be certain that work is not originated in this way. Similarly, targeted marketing is not permitted, rule 8.9 (Solicitors, 7.1 for Firms) prohibits this. The SRA has published guidance on this, see the SRA’s guidance on targeted marketing. So for example, conveyancers would be permitted to deliver leaflets to every home in a particular area but would not be permitted to put marketing material solely through the letter boxes of homes with a ‘For Sale’ sign outside.