FTC Settles with Last DirecTV Do-Not-Call Violators
The Federal Trade Commission has settled with the final defendants in its do-not-call case against satellite television provider DirecTV.
The settlement ends the FTC’s case against direct marketing firms D.R.D. Inc., Global Satellite and individuals William King, Daniel Delfino, and Michael Gleason, the commission said.
Under the settlement, D.R.D will pay $35,000 and King, who ran Global Satellite, will pay $65,000 of a $653,013 civil penalty based on his inability to pay the whole amount, according to the FTC.
The FTC claims that D.R.D., Global Satellite, King, Delfino and Gleason violated Do-Not-Call provisions of the Telemarketing Sales Rule by calling people whose numbers are on the national do-not-call registry and by using prerecorded messages that resulted in abandoned calls.
DirecTV last December agreed to pay $5.3 million for its part in the case, the largest-ever do-not-call penalty obtained by the FTC, according to the commission.
Previous to DirecTV’s settlement, the FTC’s largest civil penalty was $4 million against Mazda in 1999, according to the commission. The biggest do-not-call penalty had been $500,000 against a company called Flagship, according to the FTC.
