National satellite provider Dish Network must pay out a record $280 million for violating the federal Do Not Call registry.
In a rare victory to consumers, Dish is being ordered to pay $280 million to compensate customers for repeated calls despite being registered on a Do Not Call list. Now, the ongoing eight-year legal battle is coming to an end.
Dish was found guilty by the FTC for repeatedly violating the Do Not Call registry by using an automated robocall system. Dish’s system reportedly called numbers on the national registry around 55 million times.
The case against Dish is being called the largest robocall-related settlement of its kind.
The initial fee Dish was expected to pay was around $24 million in fines from the DOJ, but thanks to a judge’s order, the corporation is now going to have to dish out $280 million for its crimes.
Unsurprisingly, the corporation disagrees with the verdict and plans to appeal the ruling. In a statement issued in response, Dish said that the company “respectfully disagrees with today’s decision by the Court” and said that the penalty they are being required to pay “radically and unjustly exceed, by orders of magnitude, those found in the settlements in similar actions.”
Dish also argues that third parties carried out many of the robocalls that Dish has been accused of, many of which were conducted without Dish’s knowledge.
Still, for frustrated Americans who were harassed by constant robocalls during dinner and the nightly news, it is encouraging to see the federal Do Not Call registry defended at such a high level. This is a lesson to all telemarketers: eventually, maybe, it will catch up to you.
