Individual call centre staff charged with DNC violations

In December 2005, the Federal Trade Commission charged California-based DirecTV and other defendants that telemarketed on DirecTV's behalf with violating the DNC rule and US Telemarketing Sales Rule by calling consumers despite the numbers appearing on the national DNC registry. Only now have the court settlements been finalised and figures made public.

Court orders require the defendants to pay the $100,000 (£51,000) fine and bar them from future Telemarketing Sales Rule violations. In settling the charges, DirecTV paid $5.3m, which represents the largest ever DNC penalty obtained by the FTC.

Defendant Global Satellite also violated the Telemarketing Sales Rule by using pre-recorded telemarketing messages that resulted in abandoned calls. Under the Telemarketing Sales Rule, each abandoned call is a violation if not connected to a live operator within two seconds after the consumer answers.

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This article was first published on brandrepublic.com