Following action by the OFT, the High Court on Thursday granted
an interim injunction against Christopher Yewdall prohibiting him
from being involved in any way with certain types of advertising
about data protection notification services. It also means he can
no longer accept payments in response to such advertising. The
order is a temporary measure, pending a full hearing before the
High Court.
The OFT's case is that Mr Yewdall was involved with misleading
advertisements relating to notification with the Information
Commissioner under the Data Protection Act 1998.
The adverts had return addresses from all over the country and
were issued under various names - Data Protection Agency, Data
Protection Agency Registrations, Data Protection Agency Services,
National Registrations, Data Protection Registration and Data
Protection Registration Services. The ads have been the subject of
thousands of complaints.
The OFT has had prior dealings with Yewdall – he gave written
assurances to the OFT in August last year that he would not be
involved with such advertising again, but it seems he didn't keep
his promises.
The OFT was acting under The Control of Misleading
Advertisements Regulations (CMARs) 1988, which give the OFT the
power to step in if the public interest requires that
advertisements complained of should be stopped by means of a court
order.
While most businesses processing personal data are required by
law to notify the Information Commissioner, the fee is only £35 and
many small businesses that process personal data for limited
purposes are not required to notify. Businesses can notify the
Information Commissioner directly.
The OFT has previously taken action against a number of similar
mailings and is working closely with the Information Commissioner
and local Trading Standards Services to tackle the problem.
Unfortunately, to date there has been little in the way of
punishment, which means that the practice is not being
deterred.
