Was Your Thanksgiving Interrupted By Telemarketers? Maybe This Will Help Your Christmas

We all were able to enjoy Thanksgiving, at least to the extent we did, without interruption from telemarketers because the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) established the National Do Not Call Registry for consumers who do not wish to receive certain telemarketing calls. Generally speaking, the TSR prohibits calling consumers who have signed up for the registry. The TSR also prohibits “robocalls,” that is, telephone calls that deliver a prerecorded message if the seller has not first obtained the recipient’s consent to receive these calls. As Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, says, the TSR and the registry aim "to shield consumers from a barrage of sales calls they don’t want which push products they don’t need." 

Despite the TSR and the registry, however, it sometimes seems that we receive calls – robocalls and otherwise – that we don’t want to receive, and that we think have been barred by the TSR. Well, the federal government now says that one company, Sonkei Communications Inc., and its principal corporate officers, Peter Turpel and Joseph Turpel, violated the TSR through their telemarketing service, which facilitates delivery of robocalls by telemarketers claiming to offer products and services to consumers throughout the United States, including home security systems, grant procurement programs, and credit card services.   Sonkei is based in Newbury Park, Calif.
 
The government alleges that the defendants assisted and facilitated abusive practices by their telemarketing customers, including calling telephone numbers registered on the National Do Not Call Registry and placing unauthorized robocalls to consumers, in violation of the TSR.
 
In addition, the complaint alleges that the illegal calls allegedly placed by the defendants’ customers have generated tens of thousands of complaints from consumers and businesses.   In its lawsuit, the government asks the court to impose civil penalties for the defendants’ conduct and to enjoin them from further TSR violations.   The complaint, which the Justice Department filed with the assistance of the FTC, is based on the FTC’s investigation of the defendants’ telemarketing service.
 
If the government can prove its allegations, that would mean fewer phone calls to bother us in the future. That’s not a bad present this holiday season.