It is unlawful for companies to send marketing material to fax machines if the telephone subscriber has either registered with Fax Preference Service  ("FPS") or asked the company not to send faxes.

Earlier this month a couple of debt recovery agents were ordered by the Information Commissioner to stop sending marketing faxes contrary to the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.

This protection applies to companies as well as individuals.  Companies have been able to register with FPS since June 2005.

Mandy Webster, Data Protection Consulting

Helping business people understand privacy and ecommerce issues.