FTC Assesses over $25 Million in Civil Money Penalties for Illegal Robocalls

The FTC announced on March 26, 2019, that it assessed $25 million in civil money penalties and stopped billions of illegal robocalls in violation of the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR).

According to the FTC, the settlements were part of the agency’s ongoing efforts to combat illegal robocalls.  The orders allege that the defendants made illegal robocalls to sell auto warranties, debt-relief services, home security systems, fake charities, and Google search results services.  The defendants were also accused, among other things, of calls to numbers on the Do Not Call Registry, calls to consumers with spoofed caller IDs, calls with unlawful prerecorded messages, and illegally abandoned calls.  In total, the FTC imposed civil money penalties over $25 million for the four unrelated calling operations.  Many of the civil money penalties, however, were partially suspended for various reasons.  In addition to being assessed civil money penalties, most of the defendants were banned from making robocalls, assisting others in making robocalls, or supplying autodialers to telemarketers.