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Bloomberg
Dish Network Corp. must pay $280 million to the US and four states for using robocalls to consumers on do-not-call lists, marking what the government says is a record fine for telemarketing violations.
US District Judge Sue Myerscough issued the order, directing the company to pay $168 million to the federal government and $84 million to California, Illinois, North Carolina and Ohio for federal law violations. An additional $28 million in fines was awarded to California, North Carolina and Ohio for violations of state law.
Myerscough also prohibited the company from violating do-not-call laws going forward and imposed a 20-year plan for supervision of its telemarketing. The company disagrees with the ruling and will appeal it, a spokesman said.
The US and the four states sued Dish in 2009, alleging the company violated two consumer telemarketing laws by making more than 55 million illegal calls. The US asked for $900 million in fines, while the states sought more than $110 million. Nicole Navas Oxman, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said the fines imposed by the judge are the largest-ever in a robocall case, while declining to immediately comment further. Dish blamed contractors and subcontractors for more than 90 percent of bad calls, terming the rest of the contacts inadvertent. The company said it fired the offending contractors when Dish learned of the illegal activity.
The company knew its contractors, in many cases, were violating do-not-call laws “and did nothing,’’ the judge said. The company’s retail sales managers “showed little concern with compliance,’’ she said.
While the judge spared the company from an immediate telemarketing ban sought by the plaintiffs, she said she imposed a compliance plan on the company because she’s “convinced that at least some in Dish management do not believe that Dish really did anything wrong or harmed anyone with these millions and millions of illegal calls.’’
“The evidence supports the conclusion that the pressure needs to be maintained to keep Dish’s marketing personnel from reverting to their practice of trying to get around the rules,†Myerscough wrote.