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.