england-and-wales extortion
What laws govern, empower, or limit indiscriminate accusatory TV Licensing mailings?
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/DmAJ1.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/DmAJ1.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a>Anyone who has lived in the UK knows about postal TV license fee spam. These gaslighting, accusatory and threatening letters seem to verge on extortion, and are regularly received by households who do not watch any TV.</p>
<p>What is the worst that can happen due to ignoring these seemingly empty threats, who sends them out, what powers do they have, and is it not illegal for them to send these threatening letters groundlessly?</p>

<p>The law doesn't work like that. You don't need a law to <em>allow</em> you to send someone a letter, just as you don't need a law to allow you to do anything at all. You are free to do anything you like unless there is a law which says you <em>can't</em> do that thing.</p>
<p>There is no law which specifically says that TV licensing cannot write to unlicensed properties.</p>
<p>More generally, there is <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1997/40/section/1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Section 1 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997</a> which provides at sub-section 1:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A person must not pursue a course of conduct — (a) which amounts to
harassment of another, and (b) which he knows or ought to know amounts
to harassment of the other.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sub-section 3 provides that the above rule is not breached if &quot;<em>in the particular circumstances the pursuit of the course of conduct was reasonable.</em>&quot;</p>
<p><a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1997/40/section/7" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Section 7</a> provides that &quot;course of conduct&quot; means there must be at least two occasions of that conduct, and that harassment includes alarm and distress.</p>
<p>It is a fast and straightforward matter to <a href="https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/telling-us-you-dont-need-a-tv-licence" rel="nofollow noreferrer">notify TV licensing</a> that you don't need a TV Licence. You are free to do that at any point before or after you receive a letter. If you do so, they will stop writing to you for two years.</p>
<p>It seems unlikely therefore that a court would make a finding of harassment. It is reasonable conduct for TV Licensing to write to properties which its records show are unlicensed given that they will stop doing so if you ask them to.</p>
<h2>&quot;What is the worst that can happen due to ignoring these seemingly empty threats?&quot;</h2>
<p>If you do not do any of the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>Install or use a television receiver.</li>
<li>Have in your possession or control a television receiver which you intend to install or use or which you know or believe someone else intends to install or use,</li>
</ul>
<p>then you can safely ignore the letters free of consequence.</p>
<p>If you do any of the above then you will commit an offence under <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/21/section/363" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Section 363 of the Communications Act 2003</a> and you can be prosecuted.</p>
