DirecTV, Comcast to Pay Total of $3.2 Million for Do Not Call Violations

DIRECTV to Pay $2.31 Million for Violating Telemarketing Sales Rule; Comcast to Pay $900,000 for Calling Consumers Who Asked Not to be Called Again Satellite television provider DIRECTV, and Comcast Corp., one of the nations largest providers of cable and Internet services, have agreed to pay a total of $3.21 million to settle separate Federal Trade Commission charges that they violated the Do Not Call provisions of the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), including charges that they or their telemarketers called consumers who specifically had told the companies not to call them again. In addition, a DIRECTV telemarketer and its principals have agreed to pay a $115,000 penalty for making prerecorded sales calls to consumers who had asked not to be called. Under the proposed settlements, DIRECTV has agreed to pay $2.31 million to settle the FTCs charges that it violated the TSRs Do Not Call provisions and, as a result, violated a 2005 court order barring it from such conduct. Comcast has agreed to pay $900,000 to settle the FTCs claims that it violated the entity-specific Do Not Call provisions of the TSR. All the defendants also would be prohibited from future violations of the TSR and the Do Not Call Rule. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed the actions on behalf of the FTC. In both of these cases, DIRECTV and Comcast violated consumers privacy by calling people who specifically had asked these companies not to call them again, said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. What makes DIRECTVs actions especially troubling is that it is a two-time offender: DIRECTV violated not only the FTCs Do Not Call Rules, but also a previous federal court order barring it from exactly this type of conduct. Simply put, we wont tolerate firms that disregard consumers specific requests not to be called, and we will be especially tough on companies that ignore their obligations under prior court orders. Combined with the $5.3 million DIRECTV paid under the earlier 2005 Do Not Call order, the company has now agreed to pay a total of more than $7.6 million for Do Not Call violations. A DIRECTV telemarketer and its principals also are settling related charges. They would be required to pay a $115,000 penalty for calling consumers who had asked not to be called, and for abandoning calls delivering a prerecorded message when consumers answered, rather than connecting them to a live sales representative. The Commissions complaint against Comcast is the first to have as its sole allegation that a company called consumers who had specifically asked it not to call them the so-called entity-specific Do Not Call provision of the TSR. In another recent Do Not Call enforcement action, last month the Commission announced a complaint against Dish Network (formerly known as Echostar) and two of its telemarketers alleging that they violated the Do Not Call Rule by calling consumers whose phone numbers are on the National Do Not Call Registry. Those cases are currently pending in court. Comcast fully supports all Do-Not-Call regulations and we are committed to preventing unwanted telemarketing calls. The FTC found our compliance with the national Registry to be 99.85% and chose not to pursue any claim against Comcast in that area. This settlement is limited to alleged calls made to persons identified on our internal do-not-call list, where our compliance percentage was at 99.74%. Both compliance percentages are greater than those reported by the FTC to Congress last year as evidencing ˜highly effective performance. Since the period under review, we have further strengthened our policies and procedures to prevent unwanted telemarketing calls, said Sena Fitzmaurice, Executive Director Corporate Communications and Government Affairs.