FTC Seeks First Civil Penalties for 'Do Not Call'

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is for the first time seeking civil penalties for violations of the Do Not Call (DNC) register. It claims that a Nevada-based telemarketing group has made more than 300,000 calls to consumers who registered their phone numbers on the list.

The complaint is made against Braglia Marketing Group, L.L.C. (BMG), a telemarketing firm based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and its principals. The company calls consumers on behalf of its clients, including two timeshare resort developers with properties in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

According to the FTC, in addition to making calls to hundreds of thousands of registered phone numbers since October 17, 2003, BMG also has made more than 10,000 calls to various phone numbers without first paying the required annual fee to access the registered numbers in those area codes. The FTC further alleges that BMG has abandoned calls to consumers by failing to connect the call to a representative within two seconds after consumers answered the phone. The FTC has charged the defendants with violating the Do Not Call Registry provisions and other provisions of the Telemarketing Sales Rule.

The Commission vote referring the matter to the Department of Justice for filing was 5-0. The complaint was filed at the FTC's request by the Department of Justice in U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada on August 30, 2004. The FTC stresses that the complaint is not a finding or ruling that the defendant actually has violated the law.

Copies of the complaint are available from the FTC's Web site at www.ftc.gov

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.