The FTC filed a lawsuit against Dish Network alleging that it...
The FTC filed a lawsuit against Dish Network alleging that it violated provisions of the commission’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). The agency alleged that the DBS company “illegally called millions of consumers who had previously asked telemarketers from the company…
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or its affiliates not to call them again,” it said. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court in Springfield, Ill. (http://xrl.us/bnmw5y). Dish Network called consumers in the Central District of Illinois and other parts of the U.S. “even when consumers have stated they did not wish to receive an outbound call made by or on behalf of Dish Network programming,” the complaint said. The agency said Dish uses a network of authorized dealers to make the calls. The FTC urged the court to award it “monetary civil penalties from Defendant for every violation of the TSR.” It’s particularly disappointing when a well-established, nationally known company “appears to have flagrantly and illegally made millions of invasive calls to Americans who specifically told Dish Network to leave them alone,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. Dish said it “respectfully disputes the merits of the complaint” filed by the FTC. “We manage our marketing practices to best-in-class standards.” The commission “was recently denied the ability to assert these same claims by a federal court in another contested matter, and we will defend ourselves vigorously against them,” Dish said. A similar lawsuit filed in 2009 against Dish from the FTC and the Justice Department (CD March 26/09 p13) is still pending, the FTC said. Last year, Dish and other entities filed petitions with the FCC seeking clarification on liability for companies when third parties make unlawful telemarketing calls (http://xrl.us/bnmxhj).