Wednesday, December 14, 2005

DirecTV Fined $5.3M For Do Not Call Violations

Los Angeles-based satellite television firm DirecTV has been fined $5.3M, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). DirecTV has been ordered to pay $5,335,000, the agency said, for violating Do Not Call provisions of the Telemarketing Sales Rule. The FTC said that DirecTV and companies it hired to promote DirecTV programming have been violating the Do Not Call rule by calling consumers on the National Do Not Call Registry. The FTC also said that one of DirecTV telemarketers also abandoned calls to consumers by failing to put live sales representatives on the line after calling, and provided support to that telemarketer even though it knew it was in violation of the FTC rules. The civil judgement is the largest ever announced by the FTC. DirecTV has denied any violation of the telemarketing sales and said that it wanted to settle the charges.

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