The U.S. Department of Justice filed suit Wednesday against Douglas County-based Dish Network for allegedly violating terms of the Do Not Call Registry.
The lawsuit, based on information from the Federal Trade Commission, claims that satellite-TV provider Dish and its authorized dealers called “numerous consumers” who had signed up on the federal registry that prohibits solicitation phone calls from businesses.
An FTC spokesman said the agency got 20,000 complaints last year from consumers about unwanted phone solicitations on Dish’s behalf.
Dish, in a statement, said it “respectfully disagree(s)” with allegations in the lawsuit.
Eileen Harrington, a senior FTC official, said the Do Not Call Registry has been “enormously effective at protecting millions of Americans from unwanted telemarketing calls at home.
“But because a few bad actors still don’t get it, we want to make it crystal clear,” she said. “If you call consumers whose numbers are on the registry, you’re breaking the law. If your authorized dealers call consumers whose numbers are on the registry, you’re breaking the law.”
Dish competitor DirecTV in 2005 paid $5.3 million to settle FTC allegations that its hired telemarketers called numbers on the registry.
Dish said in the statement that it has proper controls in place for solicitation calls, and that its business relationships with independent retailers did not constitute “assisting and facilitating” allegedly illegal phone calls.
Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948 or sraabe@denverpost.com
