The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has reached settlements with three London-based firms for the alleged use of unlicensed software.

The settlements, which amount to £35,000 in total, follow on from an enforcement campaign the BSA waged earlier this year on illegal software users in the capital.

The three firms involved were Network Disaster Recovery Limited, Osel Architecture Limited and Home Inspector Training Limited.

Network Disaster Recovery Limited paid the BSA almost £15,000 in fines after it was caught using under-licensed Microsoft and Symantec products. In addition to this, the firm also had to pay out an additional £7,000 to cover the cost of replacing its illegal software.

The BSA fined Osel Architecture £8,000 for using unlicensed copies of Autodesk and Adobe software.

The Home Inspector Training Limited had to stump up just under £5,000 after it was caught using unlicensed Microsoft software.

In all three cases the settlements agreed excluded legal fees or any costs incurred because of disruption to operations.

Alyna Cope, a representative for the BSA’s UK Country Committee, confirmed that the latest settlements marked the start of a pre-Christmas clampdown on unlicensed software users in the capital.

She said: “We will be looking closely at businesses in London ahead of the Christmas period and will be increasing our enforcement activity.

“There are still too many businesses in the capital that are negligent when it comes to managing their software, and we are calling on all software users to blow the whistle on illegal software use.”