"Do Not Call" Violators Fined $1.2M 185
coondoggie writes "A federal court today spanked two telemarketers with some $1.2 million in civil penalties for violating the Federal Trade Commission's Do Not Call Rule. According to the FTC, the companies called consumers whose phone numbers were on the Do Not Call Registry without having obtained their express written agreement or having an 'established business relationship' with them. One group's telemarketers also allegedly abandoned many calls, by failing to connect the calls to a sales representative within two seconds after consumers answered, as required by law, the FTC stated. The cases were filed by the Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC."
Re:Phone Spam (Score:3, Informative)
I have a Virgin Mobile that I've been using now for nearly a year and I still get calls from all sorts of telemarketers who refuse to stop calling me, claiming I owe money or that my car warranty is about to expire. I recently made a report on one of these companies whose robo calls filled up my voice mail, only to recieve a letter back saying the report was 'unfounded' and wishing me a nice day.
I'm not a lawyer, but I'm guessing that the law focuses on phone number and not on phone owner. So, since a business relationship was established with your phone number from the previous owner of the number, you might be screwed until some possible time-out period.
Re:Thats good to hear. (Score:1, Informative)
Bennett Haselton has [judgejokes.com] documented [judgejokes.com] several [judgejokes.com] examples [judgejokes.com]. The incident based upon which he filed a formal complaint [judgejokes.com] against Judge Jorgensen is the most egregious example.
He said it was robocalls (Score:4, Informative)
...and I've gotten robocalls on my cell, too, saying my car warranty was going to expire.
If, as you say, you have to have someone actually on the line, then no, they're not legal.
Dan Aris
Re:cost of doing business... (Score:2, Informative)
If you don't think 1.2 mil isn't big dollars to a SINGLE business, as opposed to an INDUSTRY, then you are mistaken. If it was a multi-billion dollar company sure - but someone is gonna feel some heat on this.
Westgate Resorts http://www.westgateresorts.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=about_us.show_about_us [westgateresorts.com] was fined $900,000. They claim that they have "Over 10,000" employees, which means that the fine is less than $90 per employee (about a day and a half's pay at minimum wage). Just a small slap on the wrist for a company that size IMO.
Re:Phone Spam (Score:2, Informative)
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-258164A1.pdf [fcc.gov] (warning pdf - it was either this or a word .doc)
"Telemarketing to cell phone numbers has always been illegal in most cases and will
continue to be so."
"FCC regulations prohibit telemarketers from using automated dialers to call cell phone
numbers. Automated dialers are standard in the industry, so most telemarketers are
barred from calling consumers on their cell phones without their consent."